Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot to contest assembly elections, says Congress

Rajasthan assembly elections: Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot said they will contest the December 7 polls along with other senior leaders of the state.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi with AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot and RPCC President Sachin Pilot. Photo: PTI (File)

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday said that former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and its state unit president Sachin Pilot will contest the December 7 assembly elections in Rajasthan along with other senior leaders of the state. Announcing the decision, Gehlot said: "Both, I and Sachin Pilot will fight the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections. We are all united. It is BJP's conspiracy to spread false news that the Congress is divided." Ashok Gehlot is reportedly locked in a struggle for power with Sachin Pilot as both the leaders are strong contenders for the chief minister's post in Rajasthan. Asked why the Congress had not declared a chief ministerial face before the elections, Gehlot said this had never been done in Rajasthan. Gehlot and Pilot were addressing a press conference here at party headquarters. Pilot attacked Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, saying she had betrayed the trust of the people of the state. Pilot said the tension was evident in the BJP camp with many senior leaders sidelined and not given tickets, showing that "all is not well". There have been reports of infighting between Pilot and Ashok Gehlot over who will be the chief minister if the party wins the next elections. The Congress has maintained that the election will be contested in the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and the decision on chief ministerial candidate, if the party wins, will be taken after the results of the elections. Earlier this year, Gehlot had said in a newspaper interview that young leaders should learn to wait in queue and not try to jump it, remarks seen as a message to his younger rivals in the state unit of the party. Pilot, who is the president of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, said that the party has a tradition in which, once it wins an election, the newly-elected MLAs meet and elect their leader. At 26, Pilot became the youngest MP. Five years later in 2009, he became the youngest Union Minister. Under his watch, the Congress this year won crucial by-polls to the Ajmer and Alwar parliamentary constituencies and the Mandalgarh assembly seat. But the credit, he said, goes to the workers.