Kamal Nath roped in to end Pilot vs Gehlot fight

Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath has been roped in by the party to play the role of a mediator in resolving the situation arising in the party's Rajasthan unit after Sachin Pilot's day-long fast in Jaipur seeking action against the alleged corruption under the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government.

Nath along with Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal met Pilot on Thursday to discuss his side of arguments and the former Rajasthan deputy CM conveyed to them that his fast was only directed at action against corruption and was not "anti-party" at all, sources said.

"Though the meeting was cordial nothing concrete came out of it," a source in the know of the developments told PTI.

Congress' Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Thursday morning met party chief Mallikarjun Kharge for the second time in two days to discuss the Rajasthan issue. He had also met Rahul Gandhi at his residence to discuss the matter.

Leaders close to Pilot have argued that his fast was only against the corruption under Vasundhara government and cannot be termed "anti-party".

They claim that the Congress has been raising the corruption plank in the Adani matter and in Karnataka polls and Pilot's action was in line with that.

As far as the issue of "indiscipline" is concerned, the Pilot side has also raised questions as to why no action has been taken against Gehlot loyalists who had defied party directive for holding a legislature party meeting last year.

They have also raised questions as to why Randhawa's statement called the fast anti-party even before it took place.

Sources close to Pilot said that there has been no physical meeting between him and Randhawa.

The Congress leadership is caught in a peculiar situation and wants to find a middle path to the issue, party sources said.

Pilot reached Delhi on Wednesday, a day after he observed a fast in Jaipur.

Both Gehlot and Pilot were keen on the chief minister's post when the party won in the state assembly elections in 2018. But the Congress high command picked Gehlot for the top post for a third time.

In July 2020, Pilot and a section of Congress MLAs had rebelled openly against Gehlot, demanding a change of leadership in the state. Pilot was then stripped of the posts of deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee president.

The month-long crisis ended after the Congress central leadership's assurance to look into the issues Pilot raised.

Gehlot later used terms like "gaddar" (traitor), "nakara" (failure) and "nikamma" (worthless) for Pilot, and accused him of being involved with BJP leaders in a conspiracy to topple the Congress government.

Last September, MLAs in the Gehlot camp boycotted a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting and held a parallel one to stall what they felt was an attempt to make Pilot the new chief minister. Gehlot was then being considered for the party president's post.