On Thursday, Rajasthan Congress said it had nothing to do with former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot’s five-day march against corruption and other concerns from Ajmer to Jaipur, claiming it was his “personal yatra” and not the party’s.
A Congress yatra, according to the state unit’s head Govind Singh Dotasara, is one that has the party’s emblem, as well as images of the party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge and leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. When the AICC or the state units provide a program for it, a Congress yatra is organized, Dotasara continued.
His particular yatra is this. He assured the reporters present that this wasn’t a yatra organized by the Congress. Dotasara said that the party leadership should assess if it would help or hurt the party two months before the Rajasthan assembly elections. He said, “The party high command has to make a decision on it.”
‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’, a 125-km journey, was started on Thursday from Ajmer by the pilot, a Congress MLA from Tonk. Pilot addressed a crowd of onlookers on the Jaipur Highway before the march began and said that his march was not directed at any one person, but rather against corruption and to defend the interests of the state’s young.
Ever since the Rajasthan Congress took office in 2018, Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot have been in a power struggle. In July 2020, he organized a failed uprising against Gehlot, and he and his supporters were expelled from power.
In recent weeks, Pilot has accused the state administration of delay in instances of suspected corruption under the previous Vasundhara Raje government and even sat on a day-long dharna in Jaipur last month. Later this year, Rajasthan is scheduled to have its assembly elections, and Pilot’s yatra will put pressure on Gehlot and the federal Congress leadership.
