Jaipur: Already battling factionalism, the Congress in Rajasthan has once again created a storm in political corridors when the aspirants appearing for an interview for the post of state Congress spokespersons were asked to choose between the qualities of PCC chief Sachin Pilot and AICC general secretary and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot — two contenders for the chief minister’s post.
A panel chaired by Congress national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi and AICC social media coordinator Rohan Gupta conducted the interviews at PCC headquarters in Jaipur on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The question that the Congress leadership has been carefully avoided by not declaring the chief ministerial face was brought up by Ms Chaturvedi and Mr Gupta. The aspirants for the posts of spokespersons were trapped in a tricky situation when they were asked to draw a comparison between Mr Pilot and Mr Gehlot as one of the questions.
Apart from qualities of Mr Gehlot and Mr Pilot, the two interviewers went on to ask: “Who between them is better?”
The questions put the candidates in a spot and most preferred not to spell a clear choice. Nonetheless, the question created a flutter within the state Congress while allowing the ruling BJP to take a dig at its rival.
For quite some time, supporters of Mr Gehlot and Mr Pilot have been running a campaign on social media projecting each of them as the future CM.
Even senior leaders like Deeg MLA and member of erstwhile royal family Vishvendra Singh and former MP Dr Hari Singh were divided in two camps. The former was initially in favour of Mr Pilot. However, during a PCC meeting a couple of years ago he got everyone raise their hands in support of Mr Pilot. Dut later switched sides again. Dr Hari Singh, however, said that Mr Pilot would be CM if the Congress returned to power.
Another contender and former PCC chief Dr C.P. Joshi, who is presently going through a lean patch said that the party would contest the Assembly election under the leadership of Mr Pilot.
While Mr Pilot has been skirting the issue, Mr Gehlot is seen to be showing his eagerness by constantly broaching the issue in the media.
