JAIPUR: Ever since chief minister Ashok Gehlot alluded that he would retain the top post in state’s next Congress government as well, his former deputy Sachin Pilot has been retorting the claim.
In the past three days, Pilot has twice stressed that people do not stay in office forever and that he was not going to leave Rajasthan for the next 50 years.
The latest round of war of words between Gehlot and Pilot started on the Gandhi Jayanti when the former publicly said he would remain active in politics for next 15-20 years “even if that made some people unhappy”.
At the same government function held at the chief minister’s residence, Gehlot said he would reappoint Shanti Dhariwal as the minister for urban development and housing for the fourth time when the Congress government gets repeated in the 2023 state elections.
“I am declaring his portfolio today itself,” Gehlot had said, implying that he too would be the chief minister for the 4th time and would be allocating portfolios.
Three days later, on October 5, Pilot replied but disguised it as an attack on Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government in the aftermath of farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.
At a government event in Tonk, Pilot said, “No one stays in office forever. As long as you give time to people, you will be in the chair. If people switch sides, the reversal is so hard that men in power would not know what hit them. Those who get besieged by pride and arrogance thinking that they will sit in power till the last stage of life, in my opinion they are wrong.” He quickly added, “Whatever happened in UP was condemnable.”
Pilot made another veiled reply to Gehlot’s statement during a book launch in Jaipur on Thursday. In response to a question, Pilot said, “I will be here for the next 50 years. I am not going anywhere. I will complete all the unfinished work.”
On Friday, the two senior leaders flew together in a chopper to address byelection rallies in Udiapur’s Vallabhnagar and Pratapgarh’s Dhariawad.