Emerging from a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, senior Rajasthan leader and contender for the Chief Minister’s post in the State, Sachin Pilot, described the meeting as “fruitful” and said that he was there to discuss the feedback from the grassroots on what the party should do ahead of the next assembly elections slated for 2023.
This is Mr. Pilot’s second meeting with the Congress high command. On April 8 he had a meeting with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi where other senior leaders were also present. He had not addressed the media after the meeting, but sources close to him claimed that Mr. Pilot was happy to hear what the party leadership had to say.
On Thursday, after the meeting with Ms. Gandhi, Mr. Pilot said, “In Rajasthan, every five years, for the last three decades, the government has changed. We need to break this trend. If we do the right things like we have started to do and if we move in that direction, the Congress will win the next assembly elections.” He said he was here to discuss the feedback from the grassroots and what steps the party should take in the next few weeks and months.
On Wednesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had also met, Ms. Gandhi, though the meeting was mostly about election strategist Prashant Kishor’s possible entry into the party.
The reference to “right things” here is the cabinet reshuffle of November last year in Rajasthan, where Mr. Pilot’s loyalists were accommodated. The reshuffle had come just days after Mr. Pilot’s meeting with Ms. Gandhi at that time. Drawing parallel between the two, the Mr. Pilot’s loyalists are once again hoping that these rounds of meeting signal a change.
