Day after being sacked as deputy chief minister, Sachin Pilot today reiterated that he is not joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha, who was suspended for ‘anti-party activities’ after supporting Pilot, said that the ‘battle has just begun’. Rajasthan as former chief minister Vasundhara Raje is expected to attend a crucial strategy session of the BJP as the crisis deepens, following the sacking of Ashok Gehlot’s deputy Sachin Pilot and his two loyalists from the state Cabinet. With all eyes on rebel Congress leader Pilot’s next political move, several senior BJP leaders from the state said their party’s doors are open for “anybody who expresses trust in its ideology”. The former deputy CM had earlier too clarified that he won’t be joining the saffron party.
Pilot has been upset since the Congress picked Gehlot as the chief minister after the 2018 assembly polls, while his own supporters insisted that he deserved credit for the party’s victory as its state unit president. His next move is not immediately clear. During the run-up to Tuesday’s CLP meeting, his supporters insisted that he had no plans to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. They said their aim was a leadership change in Rajasthan. “Truth can be rattled, not defeated,” Pilot tweeted in Hindi soon after he was sacked. Gehlot accused his former deputy of playing into the hands of the BJP. “I am very sad that horse-trading was going on,” he said.
