After maintaining the communication gap between the party and himself, Sachin Pilot spoke to senior party leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday. The telephonic conversation was done on the day when Mr. Pilot and the other rebel MLAs filed a case against the Congress party over the debarment and disqualification notices sent to them.
Since his statement pertaining to his revolt against the Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, he dint entertain any contact from the senior members of the party.
The former Union Minister confirmed the call to NDTV and said, “He spoke to me during the day yesterday. I just reiterated that the leadership had publicly invited him for a meeting and all issues can be discussed. I advised him to seize the opportunity.”
Moreover, Congress party’s top leaders, the Gandhi clan, also tried contacting Mr. Pilot since the past several days but they were disappointed with his lack of responsiveness. His call to Mr. Chidambaram came as a surprise move.
The rebel former Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan spoke to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well on Wednesday evening.
He even had a talk with the Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is on the opposing side of a courtroom dispute today going on between the rebel MLAs and Congress party. They had reached to the court, dragging Congress, over their disqualification notices which were given for allegedly carrying out “anti-party activities.”
Mr. Pilot was removed from his post of the Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan and the state’s Congress chief. His team had debated that hours after Priyanka’s vow to help, he was sacked.
Randeep Singh Surjewala, who was sent by the party to contain the issues in Jaipur, repeated in a statement on Friday that “doors are open for whoever wants to come back”. Opposed to this, some Congress leaders believe that Mr. Pilot’s step had led him to “a point of no return.”
The party urged Ashok Gehlot to cease his agendas of attacking Mr. Pilot during these sensitive times. The Chief Minister had accused his former deputy Chief Minister of uniting with the BJP and “making deals” to buy MLAs for money in a bid to become rebels.
Mr. Surjewala took over the press conference which was supposed to be briefed by Mr. Gehlot. The meet was regarding the audio recordings of rebel MLAs for conspiring moves against the Congress party.
PTI quoted sources as saying Mr Surjewala held a closed-door meeting with the Chief Minister, urging him to refrain from defaming Mr. Pilot and speaking anything against him.
According to some high-end sources of the party, Rahul Gandhi is adamant on keeping Mr. Pilot in Congress. He was a part of the close knit circle of associates of Rahul Gandhi along with Jyotiaditya Scindia, who resigned from his role in the party in March to join BJP.
However, on Wednesday, Mr. Pilot stressed on his earlier statement of not joining the BJP. While many Congress leaders took this as a good sign, some are speculating that he might be buying time to bring more MLAs under his umbrella.
“We want to tell Pilot that if you don’t want to go to the BJP then don’t accept Haryana”s hospitality. If you don’t want to go to the BJP, stop talking to any BJP leader or member,” Mr Surjewala said the same day.
