Pilot under watch prior to 2020 revolt: Gehlot's OSD

December 05, 2023 21:47

Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot (left)

Outgoing Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's OSD Lokesh Sharma on Tuesday alleged that the then deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot's movements and phone were tracked and monitored by the Gehlot government in the run-up to and during the rebellion Pilot had staged in 2020.

There was no immediate reaction from Congress leaders Gehlot and Pilot or their aides on the allegations.

Sharma, who was denied a ticket to contest the Rajasthan assembly polls and has been criticising Gehlot for the party's defeat in the elections, also said if the incidents of September last year, when a legislature party meeting was not allowed to take place by Gehlot loyalists, had not happened and the Congress observers had carried out the agenda for which they had come, the picture in Rajasthan would have been different.

The Congress leadership wanted to effect a leadership change and bring in Pilot as the chief minister.

He said the differences between Gehlot and Pilot "harmed" the party's prospects.

"When the political crisis of 2020 had come and Pilot ji had left with his 18 MLAs, then in such a situation, the government does put its machinery in to use and everyone is monitored, where do these people go, who do they meet and who do they speak with. So that is done and in that manner their monitoring was also done," Sharma alleged.

He claimed that the monitoring was happening from before the rebellion as there was some idea that such a thing could happen. -- PTI

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