Speculation is rife in Congress about leaders who could join Pilot

MLAs chased

Even as Sachin Pilot’s exit from the government kept the political pot boiling in Rajasthan, two MLAs of a regional party threatened to steal the limelight after alleging that they were chased by the state police and were virtually held hostage – purportedly at the behest of the ruling party – when they tried to leave Jaipur. Rajkumar Roat, Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) legislator from Chorasi, and his colleague Ram Prasad claimed they were tailed by the police when they tried driving from their MLA hostel to Dungarpur, 500 km from Jaipur. One of them also posted a video, alleging that his car keys were snatched by the police. The BTP had earlier pulled out of the Ashok Gehlot government.

Who will join Pilot?

Speculation is rife in the Congress about leaders who could join Sachin Pilot (pictured) if he floats a political party. Some Congress leaders have publicly expressed sympathy with Pilot. “Sachin Pilot is not just a colleague but my friend. No one can take away the fact that all these years he has worked with dedication for the party. Sincerely hope the situation can still be salvaged. Sad it has come to this,” tweeted the Congress’s Uttar Pradesh leader Jitin Prasada. Maharashtra Congress leader Milind Deora, who is not altogether happy with his current lot in the party, is also being spoken of as someone in touch with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Another leader said the ruling party had reached out to many more of the younger leaders, but did not have anything substantive to offer in terms of ministerial berths or Rajya Sabha seats.

Balanced sarcasm

The political slugfest in Rajasthan found an echo in the Madhya Pradesh BJP on Tuesday. A tweet by former MP higher education minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, targeting the Congress, also had a hint of sarcasm for his own party — specifically, new inductee Jyotiraditya Scindia. The tweet in Hindi read: “Hey Congress ki rajmata! Apne kunbe ko sambhalie na! Akhir aapki roothi hui rajneetik santanon ko hum apnon ke hisse ka kitna pyar lutate rahenge? (Take care of your clan, queen mother of Congress. How much love can we bestow on your disgruntled children?).” Last Saturday, taking a dig at Scindia following his Gwalior visit, Pawaiya had tweeted: “Why did the newly inducted ministers not visit the Samadhi of Rani Laxmibai when they came to Gwalior? Remember, this democracy ... owes it to the blood of the martyrs.” Before Scindia joined the BJP, Pawaiya was the most vocal critic of the family, which ruled Gwalior until India’s independence.