Rajasthan Politics: Congress party sacked Sachin Pilot as Deputy CM and state party chief

Rajasthan: As a major development in state politics, Congress party has dropped Sachin Pilot as the Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and the state party chief. Along with Sachin Pilot, two Rajasthan ministers who had joined the Pilot camp have also been sacked from the cabinet. The decision to drop the rebel leader was announced by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjeawal on Tuesday after Sachin Pilot skipped a second meeting of the Rajasthan MLAs.

Speaking on this, Randeep said, "I regret that Sachin Pilot and some of his associates have been influenced by the BJP's plot and are now conspiring to topple the Congress government elected by 8 crore Rajasthan citizens which is unacceptable."

During the meet, the CLP meeting passed resolutions to drop Sachin Pilot as the Rajasthan Congress president. It authorized CM Gehlot to remove Pilot as deputy Chief Minister.

Following this, Ashok Gehlot sacked Sachin Pilot as the deputy CM. He also dropped two of the Pilot loyalist ministers Ramesh Meena and Vishwendra Singh. Ashok Gehlot did not address the media after the Congress meet of the MLAs and instead headed straight to Governor Kalraj Mishra to inform him about the reshuffling of the state cabinet.

Congress party appointed Govind Singh Dotasra as the Rajasthan PCC Chief after Sachin Pilot was removed as the state party chief.

Former Rajasthan Deputy CM Sachin Pilot responded through twitter. "Truth cannot be defeated," he tweeted.

The political crisis in Rajasthan began on Friday when the police sent a notice to Sachin Pilot, asking him to record his statement over the alleged bid to bring down the government.

Sachin Pilot has been upset since he was denied for the Rajasthan chief minister's post after the December 2018 assembly elections. Tuesday's meeting of the Congress was said to be a second chance for Sachin Pilot. Though the Congress made appeals to Sachin Pilot to attend the second meeting of Congress Legislature Party, he turned down all appeals.

Speaking on it, Ashok Gehlot had alleged that the opposition BJP was trying to attract Congress MLAs. The BJP dismissed the allegations saying the developments only reflected a power struggle within the ruling party.

In the 200 member assembly, Congress party has 107 MLAs and BJP are with 72 MLAs. In the past, the ruling party has claimed the support of 13 independents, two MLAs each from the CPM and the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) and one from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).