By Archana Sharma
Jaipur, Feb 15 (IANS) The Rajasthan Congress presented a divided house in presence of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his two-day visit to the desert state last week.
At many places, there were groups cheering for former deputy CM Sachin Pilot in presence of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot which left the latter group red-faced.
Further, the collapse of ‘Khat’ (cot) accommodating Pilot became a talk of the town and Pilot supporters as well as BJP leaders have raised a demand to ‘probe’ the incident and find out why the cot with senior leaders collapsed on the dais.
It needs to be mentioned here that Congress leaders had arranged for a Khat on dais during Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Hanumangarh district. The khat collapsed when Pilot and other leaders were sitting on it and later it had to be changed.
While Gehlot loyalists are seen making critical comments on Pilot questioning why is it the ‘charpai’ of Sachin which broke down linking this incident with Pilot losing the PCC president post and Cabinet rank in ministry, Pilot loyalists are busy making comments on social media urging leaders to find out reasons for this cot collapse.
Further, there were last-minute shifts in the proposed plan of Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled trip which left even leaders confused.
Things did not stop here. Pilot was asked to step down from the dais in one of the tractor rallies which is yet again bringing in sharp criticism from Pilot followers on social media.
Going further, Rahul’s rallies in the desert state failed to attract a decent crowd as expected by partymen which is also being questioned within party circles and they are blaming the fractured Congress for the same.
Congress officials confirmed that new PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasara was more keen to prove his calibre in front of Rahul Gandhi and hence was trying to manage the show on his own without delegating the duties to other party men.
However, things fell flat on its face.
Surprisingly, the media management was also poor during the trip. The formal invite sent to the media had a casual touch to it and journalists were asked to contact a few workers if they wanted to attend the rallies.
Congress leaders told IANS that there has been no media team officially appointed even after many months when the PCC was dissolved in July after Pilot’s rebellion against the state leadership.
Dotasara has been trying to do everything on his own and this led to mismanagement, they added.
Eventually, a divided house was palpable in the presence of Rahul Gandhi who himself failed to do a little to check factionalism in Rajasthan Congress.
Neither did he make a gesture of unity – with Gandhi at the Centre and Gehlot and Pilot on two sides – nor did he speak about the divided factions that were evident in all his rallies.
–IANS
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