Top Rajasthan Congress leaders in huddle over Pilot's march against corruption

Top leaders in the Congress' Rajasthan unit went into a huddle on Friday to chalk out a strategy to tackle the challenge thrown by Sachin Pilot, who has launched a foot march against corruption in the state.

Senior party leaders, including the Congress' Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra and co-in-charges Qazi Muhammad Nizamuddin, Amrita Dhawan and Virendra Rathore were present at a meeting at the party's Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Road office during which they are likely to discuss Pilot's march.

Pilot on Thursday launched a 125-kilometre 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra' from Ajmer to Jaipur to raise the issue of corruption during the previous BJP regime led by Vasundhara Raje and cases of paper leaks in government recruitment exams.

Pilot has said his march is not against anyone but over issues of corruption. He claimed that he has been writing to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for a year and a half for action on corruption but nothing has been forthcoming.

The five-day yatra mounts pressure on the party leadership months ahead of the assembly elections slated for later this year with the Congress also facing anti-incumbency, apart infighting in the state unit.

Pilot and Gehlot have been engaged in a power tussle since the Congress formed the government in the state in 2018. In 2020, Pilot led a failed revolt against the Gehlot government after which he was removed from the posts of the party's state unit president and deputy chief minister.

The former Rajasthan deputy chief minister had last month defied a warning from the party and went ahead with a day-long fast targeting Gehlot over his "inaction" on alleged corruption during the Raje government.