Dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot is understood to have raised a banner of revolt after receiving a tip off that his opponents were planning to implicate him in a case of sexual misconduct. The former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister apparently decided to take recourse to the “offence is the best way of defense” formulation by pre-empting any accusations which were likely to be made by a woman at the behest of his adversaries, by staking his claim to the top position in the state.
The timing of Sachin’s rebellion took the party High Command by surprise and was construed by most senior leaders as an exercise which had been initiated solely at the prodding of the BJP that had been wanting to topple the Ashok Gehlot government. Although the eventuality of a possible tieup with the saffron brigade is a matter of speculation, the moves by him are not entirely motivated by this probable liaison.
Sources said that Sachin was in a panic mode and figured that if he made his reaction appear to be his dissatisfaction with his senior, Ashok Gehlot, then the allegations of any kind of conduct bordering on moral turpitude may be seen as political retaliation by his rivals. This way, the charges would stand diluted. He was convinced that at this critical stage of his political career, a serious charge of a criminal nature could jeopardise his future. This was too big a risk to take when he was being viewed as one of the best political prospects of his party. Hence the move to pre-empt such a move by staging a revolt.
According to sources, Sachin was let down by a senior party leader belonging to the Dungarpur-Banswada region, who for more than a year had sworn his allegiance to him, earning his full trust. Sachin considered him as one of his loyalists and it was due to this factor that his name was included as probably number one in the list of MLAs, whom the deputy CM claimed were with him. However, this “trusted lieutenant” had been all along working at the behest of some of his rivals and when the time came, he did not show up to express his solidarity with the young politician.
Sources claimed that this particular leader had introduced Sachin to a widow and had wanted her to be nominated to a statutory body in state politics. Information reached the then Deputy CM that this alleged “mole” from the opposite camp was about to level serious allegations against him, and he reacted by challenging his senior in a public manner.
In the meanwhile, through a former friend who is now with the BJP, Sachin is reported to have met some top BJP functionaries, pledging to bring in around 31 MLAs with him, in order to topple the Congress government. However, Ashok Gehlot had by then swung into action and somehow managed to keep his flock intact. The BJP camp was apparently also not able to entice more MLAs as two industrialists including a pharmaceutical baron declined to shell out the cash.
All this while, the media propped up his cause and stories of the Gandhis trying to plead with him started doing the rounds when the fact is that neither Sonia nor Rahul spoke with him even once. Finding himself politically isolated, Sachin over the last two days made a futile attempt to somehow make the Congress High Command provide him with a face-saving formula. This the Gandhis were not willing to do since they were peeved with him.
While Sonia’s chief political aide, Ahmed Patel, played a crucial role in controlling the damage, two emissaries—Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken—were sent by K. Venugopal to sort out the issue in Jaipur. The two leaders were not warmly received with some MLAs even questioning why Surjewala, who had himself done cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, and Ajay Maken, who had lost a series of elections, were there. They had expected some senior leaders to act as observers and intermediaries.
On Thursday, most senior leaders in the Congress were of the view that Sachin had crossed the Lakshman Rekha. There were enough reasons for the party to now expel him, thus also sending a warning to his other friends who had tweeted in his favour on Tuesday. In fact, Sachin is skating on thin ice and stands absolutely outplayed by his more experienced opponents. Therefore, there is now a question mark over his immediate future which at one stage looked very promising.