Amid rising speculations that Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who was sacked as Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief on Tuesday, will join BJP, Pilot on Wednesday (June 15) asserted that he is not planning to join the saffron party.
Pilot and 18 other MLAs, who are believed to be his supporters, were issued notices by Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi on Wednesday (July 15) seeking their reply by July 17. Speaker Joshi issued the notice after the Rajasthan government's chief whip Mahesh Joshi lodged a complaint with him.
Speaker Joshi issued the notice to Pilot and his loyalist MLAs for ignoring the party whip. It is to be noted that Pilot and 18 rebel MLAs could be sacked from the Congress if proven guilty of deliberately ignoring the party's whip.
"Notice issued to Sachin Pilot and 18 other party members, for not attending Congress Legislative Party meetings. If they don't respond within 2 days, then it will be considered that they are withdrawing their membership from CLP," Rajasthan Congress in-charge Avinash Pande told ANI.
"May God give Sachin Pilot wisdom and he doesn't try to topple govt. He should admit his mistake. Doors were always open for him for talks, even today. But, now he seems to have moved ahead of all this, so these things don't matter now," he added.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh also took a potshot at Pilot and said that he was made an MP, a Central Minister, Rajasthan Party Chief and Deputy CM at a very young age but he failed to show patience. Singh added that Pilot's actions have been against the party discipline.
The decision to sack Pilot was announced by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala during a press conference. The Congress decided to show the door to Tonk MLA after he skipped a second meeting of Congress Legislative Party on Tuesday in Jaipur.
After being removed from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and the state president, Sachin Pilot merely said that truth can be disturbed but not defeated. It was also reported that Pilot would address a press conference on Wednesday in Delhi but sources claimed that the Tonk MLA would not talk to the media on Wednesday.
The political crisis in Rajasthan started on Sunday (July 12) after Pilot raised the banner of revolt against CM Gehlot and sent a message to the party that he may quit the party with this loyalist MLAs. Pilot claimed in some interviews that he has the support of over 30 MLAs.
