Ashok Gehlot takes potshot at Sachin Pilot for bypoll debacle

Jaipur: Taking a potshot at state Congress president Sachin Pilot, former Rajashan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has said that the party lost Dholpur byelection because of overconfidence. The former chief minister’s view is in stark contrast of Mr Pilot’s assessment of the loss. 

Mr Pilot has been saying that the Congress did not lose Dholpur seat to the BJP but to the state government. Mr Gehlot had also accused the ruling party of misusing government machinery and criticised chief minister Vasundhara Raje for staying in Dholpur till the result day, but suddenly he changed his views, which has set the tongues wagging about his intentions.

Mr Gehlot did not stop at that. He said that the party should not have any misunderstanding that the party is all poised to come to power because people change party in power in every election. Mr Gehlot said that the Congress should have won in Dholpur. “The conditions were favourable yet we lost because we were over confident besides a few decision went wrong. The party must introspect and analyse it,” he said in Ajmer, the parliamentary constituency of PCC chief Pilot,. It was Mr Gehlot’s fifth press conference in Ajmer in the last one month.

When asked about his reaction, Mr Pilot said that he always take Mr Gehlot’s suggestions seriously. “He is a senior leader of the party and whatever he says I always take it very seriously,” he told the media at the PCC headquarters in Jaipur on Monday.

However, the latest salvo by Mr Gehlot has indicated that he has not come to terms with Mr Pilot’s leadership. Mr Gehlot’s statement had come barely a few months after Mr Pilot was appointed PCC chief replacing former chief minister’s loyalist Dr Chandrabhan following crushing defeat in the assembly elections. He reiterated this immediately after a meeting in which party leaders raised hands in support of Mr Pilot’s leadership and Mr Gehlot too was forced to raise his hands.