Jaipur, June 4
Rifts in the Rajasthan Congress resurfaced today with two party leaders criticising Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for suggesting that state unit president Sachin Pilot should take responsibility for his son Vaibhav Gehlot’s election defeat.
“The statement by the CM is wrong and against the interest of the party. He himself should take responsibility for the Jodhpur seat,” Congress MLA Prithviraj Meena said. In a TV interview yesterday, the CM had said Pilot should bear responsibility for the Congress loss in Jodhpur as he got Vaibhav Gehlot the party ticket from there. Meena said the CM seemed “obsessed” with his son.
On the back foot after Monday’s interview, the CM said the media was making an “unnecessary issue” out of it. Reacting to Gehlot’s earlier comments, Rajendra Chaudhary, a Congress leader from Jodhpur, said Gehlot’s word was final in decisions regarding that constituency. “The statement is surprising. Gehlot should take the responsibility for the Jodhpur seat because it has been his domain for 40 years. He should take the responsibly as he was made the CM to ensure the Congress’ win in Rajasthan.”
Deputy CM Sachin Pilot refused to comment. Gehlot said Pilot had assured a win by big margin for his son. “We have six MLAs there. We carried out a fantastic campaign. I understand that Pilot should at least take the responsibility of the seat. A post-mortem should be done for the Jodhpur seat,” he said.
Gehlot had claimed, “Confusion is being created in the media that there are differences between the state Congress chief and the CM. But if Pilot says he had promised the ticket to Vaibhav from Jodhpur, then where are the differences between us?” he added. Moreover, Gehlot today attended an Iftar hosted by Pilot at the party headquarters in Jaipur.— PTI
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2MuEK7a
via Today’s News Headlines
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