Ashok Gehlot-Sachin Pilot battle is back: Why former Rajasthan CM is resurrecting memories of rival’s 2020 revolt

If public memory is short and a week is a long time in politics, then six years certainly seems like another era. In Rajasthan, perhaps no one knows this better than former three-time Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

On Sunday, Gehlot launched a broadside on his former deputy Sachin Pilot, speaking at length about the latter’s 2020 rebellion and the 2022 attempt by the party high command to anoint Pilot as the CM, amid speculation that Pilot may be handed over a key responsibility in the state once again, including as the state chief.

Gehlot said that Pilot hasn’t accepted the truth yet, nor has he owned up to his “mistake” from 2020. Pilot, Gehlot said, hasn’t learned to “forget and forgive” and that’s why the issues between them persist.

However, Gehlot himself has tried to ensure that public memory on Pilot’s rebellion stays fresh. Just three days ago on June 5, while speaking on World Environment Day at his residence, Gehlot had said, “Baar baar kya kahun, Rajasthan bach gaya humara, humein toh garv hai (What should I say repeatedly, our Rajasthan was saved, we are proud of it).”

Speaking in the context of political upheaval in West Bengal, Gehlot said that the BJP, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had left no stone unturned in trying to topple his government in 2020. He alleged that party’s rebel MLAs used to leave from Manesar for Pradhan’s home where meetings were held, and that Shah used to join them there. “They hatched a big conspiracy but we exposed them,” Gehlot said.

Earlier, in April, days after Raghav Chadha’s switch to the BJP from AAP, Gehlot had responded to a statement by BJP state in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agrawal and said, “Sachin Pilotji has experienced what the consequences are of making this kind of mistake. Now he has understood and has become cautious, and I hope that now he will never leave us, and our entire party is united with him,” in an apparent reference to Pilot’s 2020 “mistake.”

Now, in his latest verbal attack, Gehlot again touched upon some significant keywords from 2020 and 2022, including “Manesar”, “Jaisalmer” – where the Gehlot camp MLAs were sequestered, and “100 MLAs” opposed to Pilot in 2022, precisely to rekindle the public memory, and to perhaps push the perception before the high command that Pilot is not favoured by party leaders.

Gehlot said that back in September 2022, the MLAs themselves opposed the move to appoint Pilot as CM ahead of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting, quoting the MLAs as saying that, “Give the post of Chief Minister to any one of us, any one of the 100 of us, and make him the Chief Minister. We are okay with that, but Pilot is not acceptable to us and we will not agree because he was among those who took them (rebels) to Manesar.”

Gehlot also said that usually whenever a CM is being replaced within the party, new MLAs flock to the incoming CM but this was not the case in Rajasthan at the CLP in 2022. “In India’s history, whenever the high command decides to change the Chief Minister, 90% of the MLAs leave the outgoing CM and go to the new CM… they want to become ministers under him, and as their work will be done by the new CM. But what was the reason the MLAs didn’t go to him?… Sachin Pilot should also understand this, now he has been in politics for about 15-20 years…”

Next, Gehlot, in his usual style, disparagingly said that he still considers Pilot like a child while making it appear quite the opposite. “None of us are his enemies, we have affection for him since childhood, we used to visit his family since childhood, he was a 2-3-year-old child then, I still consider him like a child. But I don’t know who is guiding him in politics.”

Then, Gehlot said that Pilot never acknowledged his help in becoming a Union minister. “They made him a Union Minister, and I helped him become a Union Minister, but he never said this out loud, and I have a complaint about that. He knows I helped him… If he had even told his friends that ‘Ashok Gehlot helped me’, it would have filled my heart. Why didn’t he say it?” Gehlot said, indicating that it is this behaviour which eventually led to issues between them.

Through his statements, Gehlot has effectively conveyed to the party high command that Pilot on an influential post within the state unit is not acceptable to him. To push his argument, Gehlot has cited Pilot’s 2020 rebellion and Pilot’s apparent lack of favour with party leaders, while signaling Pilot as a political novice and questioning his political advisors.

Party leaders say that unlike former CM Vasundhara Raje, who quietly yielded space to the BJP high command, Gehlot is ready to draw arms. “Gehlot cannot forgive Pilot for what he considers a ‘cardinal sin’ of trying to topple own government while being a Deputy CM and head of the party’s state unit,” a party leader said.

In his Sunday comments, Gehlot also said that the boycott of September 2022 CLP meeting – apparently called to appoint Pilot as CM – was a conspiracy against him, where AICC observers arrived “suddenly”, and “there was a tamasha, and I got defamed,” adding that he indeed wanted to be the Congress national president then.

However, party insiders say that these comments were merely a “smokescreen” and the actual aim of Gehlot’s comments was to express his displeasure at any plans to appoint Pilot in Rajasthan.

While Pilot is yet to break his silence on Gehlot’s comments, his loyalists say that despite being the deputy CM and PCC chief till 2020, Pilot and his supporters were being targeted and sidelined by the Gehlot government, pushing him to a wall. On rebels, they say that if they were wrong then why were they still given Assembly tickets in 2023 and some among them were also elected as MPs in 2024, in a reference to MPs Harish Meena and Brijendra Singh Ola.

On Gehlot terming the 2022 events as a conspiracy against him, they questioned whether Gehlot was referring to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken as orchestrators of the said conspiracy, who had arrived in Jaipur as AICC observers then.

On Gehlot questioning Pilot’s advisors, they say that it was Pilot’s hard work which brought the party from 21 seats in 2013 – its worst performance in Rajasthan till date – to touching the halfway mark of 100 seats in 2018, only to have Gehlot take charge as CM once again.

Ironically, just a week ago, when Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi arrived in Ajmer, he had praised PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Tika Ram Jully’s unity, saying that they are “a very good example for all other states”; standing next to Dotasra and Jully were Gehlot and Pilot.

While Gehlot has made his intentions clear, it remains to be seen how the party high command and Pilot respond to his salvo. In any case, the internal battle for 2028 polls has already begun.