Rajasthan Congress in disarray over Gehlot and Pilot camps

New Delhi: The open rivalry between leaders has left the Congress in Rajasthan in tatters, with no balancing equation in sight.

The difficult task ahead is announcing its state committee, given there is no love lost between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot

The Congress appointed Govind Singh Dotasra as the state chief but the committee has not yet been announced.

Dotasra had replaced Sachin Pilot, who had led a revolt against Gehlot last year.

The party's state-in charge Ajay Maken has been meeting stakeholders to keep them feel not alienated.

Fissures in the state Congress came to fore last year after Sachin Pilot's open revolt, which saw the party shaking to its foundations.

He later came back to the party fold after a rapprochement resembling a truce. Trouble in the state seems to be far from over.

Sachin Pilot wants his loyalists reinstated in positions in both the party and the council of Ministers—not least those including Ramesh Meena and Vishvendra Singh, sources said.

Both were suspended and removed as state ministers after Pilot with his 18 MLAs camped in Haryana's Manesar challenging the Gehlot leadership.

The Congress is struggling to put its house in order even months after Pilot returned to the party fold.

The party lost the rural polls following differences among the state leaders; however, it was able to make a comeback in the urban local body polls.

While Gehlot met the party leaders when he came to attend the meeting called by Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on December 19, the issue of cabinet expansion has not yet been settled.

Gehlot had blamed the Covid-19 situation for the loss in the rural polls. "In district council and Panchayat polls, the results were not to our expectation and from the past nine months our government was involved in the Covid management and our priority was to save lives and livelihood of the people," he said.

After the urban body polls, Gehlot has been giving an upbeat about the situation; however, the Congress high command does not appear to be too keen to alienate any of the factions.

IANS report with edits