Though Congress rebel Sachin Pilot returned from Delhi to Jaipur after the 'promise' by the party leadership that his demands would be met soon, his bete noire Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has conveyed that nothing can be done for another two months as he is still undergoing post-covid recovery.
“In view of the post-Covid repercussions, as a precautionary measure on the advice of doctors, the Chief Minister is not able to meet people in person. All meetings and interactions are being done through video conference and video calls only. The doctors have said that for a month or two, he should hold meetings with the video conference only,” the Chief Minister's special officer on duty Lokesh Sharma said.
Gehlot's aide stated the pressure to go for a Cabinet expansion to accommodate Pilot and his candidates is likely to be put off for a couple of months.
In the meantime, MLAs expressing their loyalties to either sides have started publicly voicing their opinion in favour of or against Gehlot and Pilot.
One of the MLAs who had revolted with Pilot last year, Bhanwar Lal Sharma, indicated that he has switched sides since then and is loyal to the Gehlot Government.
“Nothing is going to happen for the next two months because the Chief Minister is not meeting people in person. I also wanted to become Chief Minister but sometimes we have to suppress our desires,” quipped Sharma in Jaipur.
AICC general secretary incharge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken did not respond to phone calls and text messages. Maken had last week after meeting Pilot stated that very soon changes will be effected to resolve the political crisis in the State.
Gehlot has from the beginning resisted making the changes that his party leadership had promised in Delhi to his former Deputy CM Pilot. Based on the promise that his camp would get better representation in the Government and party unit in Rajasthan, Pilot had called off his stir twice including the latest last week after the intervention of Priyanka Gandhi when grapevine had it that he too would leave the party just like his former party colleagues Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasad did.
During his visit to Delhi last weekend Pilot could not meet either Congress president Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. Only AICC General Secretaries Ajay Maken and KC Venugopal met him.
Raising the hopes of rebels when Pilot was in Delhi, Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra had said on Saturday that a Cabinet reshuffle will take place soon and that “there is no problem within the party's state unit”.
“Reshuffle will happen in Rajasthan. As told by Ajay Maken Ji (Congress in-charge for Rajasthan), a reshuffle will take place in the state,” Dotasra told reporters when asked about the Cabinet reshuffle.
Rajasthan MLAs who had defected from the BSP to the ruling Congress have objected to any move by the party high command to pacify dissident legislators led by Pilot, saying it was because of them that the government was in crisis last year. The defected MLAs said it is they who should be rewarded as the government was saved by them and other Independents.