Jaipur, Nov 23: The tussle between Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy CM Sachin Pilot came to the fore once again on Wednesday when the duo sat at a distance and were not seen talking to each other during a meeting.
The meeting was called to discuss preparations for Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which will enter Rajasthan in the first week of December.
Gehlot and Pilot were seen sitting far from each other at the meeting. Both the leaders did not even talk to each other. Sachin Pilot left the meeting before it was over. For the first time after the political uproar in Rajasthan on September 25, both the leaders were seen at the same meeting.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Rajasthan for 17 days and will go to Haryana from here. The first meeting of the coordination committee was held in the Congress war room regarding the preparations for the yatra in Rajasthan. It consists of 33 members.
In the meeting, Gehlot and Pilot’s chairs were far apart as Pilot sat next to Harish Chowdhary, while veteran leader Jitendra Singh was sitting on one side of Ashok Gehlot and state party president Govind Singh Dotasara on the other side. Ashok Gehlot arrived late for the meeting which started around 12 o’clock and Sachin Pilot left about half an hour before the meeting ended.
The committee will review the route of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The yatra was in Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday.
State in-charge Ajay Maken, a member of the coordination committee of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, did not attend the meeting. Maken had resigned from the post of Rajasthan in-charge on November 8 through a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Maken’s resignation has not been accepted yet, but he has not taken any meeting or decision regarding Rajasthan.
Maken resigned expressing displeasure over the lack of action against the three leaders Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and Dharmendra Rathore, who were held responsible for boycotting the Congress Legislature Party meeting on September 25.
