Ashok Gehlot is Rajasthan CM, Sachin Pilot deputy CM in Congress peace deal

Rahul Gandhi appoints Ashok Gehlot as Rajasthan Chief minister, Sachin Pilot as deputy CM after the party emerged as the single largest party in Rajasthan assembly election results 2018

Ashok Gehlot will be the new Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Sachin Pilot his deputy, the Congress party announced on Friday.

The two leaders were announced after they met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Friday. “United colours of Rajasthan,” said Gandhi said after the meeting ended, tweeting a photo of the two Rajasthan politicians.

The Congress, in two tweets, called Gehlot “a stalwart of the party” and Pilot a “young & dedicated leader”. 

Gehlot, 67, has been the state’s chief minister twice before. Pilot, 41, was portrayed as the young face of the party in the Rajasthan assembly elections.

Gehlot’s father, Babu Laxman Singh Daksh, was a famous magician who travelled across the country to perform. “I would have been a magician if I had never entered politics. I always loved social work and learning magic tricks. In future, too, I might not get a chance to become a magician, but magic is still in my soul,” Gehlot once told an interviewer.
 

Pilot studied at Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and he has an MBA from Wharton College. He is the son of late Rajasthan politician Rajesh Pilot who died in 2000 in a road accident in Dausa. He was the minister of state for communication and IT in 2009 and minister of state (Independent charge) for corporate affairs in 2012 during the two terms of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance governments.

The Congress and its allies won 100 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party 73 in Rajasthan assembly where the half-way mark is 100.