Rajasthan: Sachin launches fast, BJP says "last nail in Gehlot govt coffin"

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], April 11 (ANI): Senior Congress leader and the former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot, sat on a daylong fast at Shaheed Samarak in Jaipur on Tuesday, calling for action by the incumbent Ashok Gehlot government against alleged corruption during the previous BJP rule under former chief minister Vasundhara Raje.

Before launching his fast on Tuesday, Pilot, a former Union minister, paid floral tributes to social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

Speaking on the ongoing daylong fast by Pilot, who fell out with the Rajasthan CM and has been taking veiled digs at him ever since, BJP leader Rajendra Rathore on Tuesday said the protest by the Congress against his own government would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the incumbent government. 

Speaking to ANI, Rathore said, "Sachin Pilot has thrown an open challenge to his party high command. His day-long fast will be the last nail in the coffin of the Congress government. Congress has lost its hold across the country."

"The Congress has been rendered weak across the country and its high command survived a significant leadership challenge in Rajasthan and is facing another. The first challenge was when Congress MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot held a separate meeting (amid the high command's bid to install Pilot as CM last year). And the latest challenge before the high command is the ongoing fast by Sachin Pilot," he added. 

He added, "The boycott of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on September 25 by the Gehlot faction had jolted the high command. And now, they are facing a renewed challenge in the form of this daylong fast by Pilot."

He said, "The people of Rajasthan will bear the brunt of the infighting within the Congress, as the CM will be busy saving his chair."

Responding to Pilot's allegations of scams during the Raje rule, Rathore, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, said, "I was also a part of that government. Why didn't Sachin Pilot raise this matter during the Budget session of the Assembly? Why didn't he raise it at cabinet meetings when he was the deputy chief minister? Why is he raising the matter now, just a few months before the elections?" (ANI)