The Assembly election results in Karnataka, where the Congress registered an impressive victory on Saturday, are set to shift the focus of party leader Sachin Pilot’s ongoing ‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’ to the impending electoral battle in Rajasthan. Mr. Pilot has so far raised the issues of corruption and paper leaks in his five-day-long yatra, which started from Ajmer on May 11.
The Congress’ victory has put pressure on Mr. Pilot to show a united face, instead of openly confronting Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, before this year’s Assembly election. The former Deputy Chief Minister will be compelled after his yatra’s conclusion to join other senior leaders and party workers from all factions to make preparations for the Assembly polls, if he wishes to stay relevant within the Congress.
Mr. Pilot, who earlier drew parallels between the corruption issue in Karnataka and Rajasthan, said on Saturday that the people in the southern State had ensured the BJP’s exit from power by rejecting its “misrule and undemocratic policies”. “The people in Karnataka were fed up with unlimited and unbridled corruption of the BJP government,” he said.
While All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said in New Delhi on Saturday said the crisis within the party’s State unit would be resolved firmly, Mr. Pilot has so far found support from only one Minister, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas. The Minister said there was “nothing wrong” with the yatra against the alleged corruption and scandals during the previous BJP regime.
Mr. Pilot said the slogan of “40% commission government” given by Congress was accepted by the public in Karnataka. “The BJP has failed to play the role of a strong Opposition in Rajasthan. When we go to polls six months from now, we must make ourselves credible before people by probing and taking action in the instances of corruption,” he said.
Youths from the Gujjar belt between Ajmer and Jaipur as well as those from Mr. Pilot’s Assembly constituency, Tonk, joined the yatra, which resumed from Jaipur district’s Dudu town on its third day on Saturday. The yatra stopped at Nasnoda village for the night halt on the way to Jaipur, where it will reach on May 15.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gehlot, reacting to the Karnataka results, said during his visit to an inflation relief camp in Pali district that the people in the southern State had chosen the politics of development over the BJP’s “communal politics”. “The atmosphere built up in Karnataka during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is clearly visible in the election results. The Congress leaders undertook a brilliant election campaign,” he said.
Mr. Gehlot said the trend of Congress’ victory would be repeated in the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. He said a BJP leader had filed a false case of defamation against Mr. Gandhi and had his Lok Sabha membership cancelled. “The people of Karnataka have given their reply [to this] today,” he said.
Congress workers celebrated the party’s victory and burst firecrackers outside the Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters here. They waved the party’s flags and raised slogans in support of senior Congress leaders.
