Who Is In-Charge? Sachin Pilot, Ashok Gehlot Banter At Congress Meet Ahead Of Panchayat Polls

A meeting of senior Congress leaders in Jaipur today saw a light hearted exchange between Ashok Gehlot, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Sachin Pilot. The subject -- who is in charge. 

Gehlot had walked into the room where Pilot and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa were standing. Then pointing to Sachin Pilot, he said, "Punjab in-charge". 

Then came the punchline. Shaking hands with both leaders, Gehlot told Pilot:, "First he was your in-charge and now you are his in-charge".

As the room broke into laughter, Pilot reacted quickly: "You are in charge of all of us. Rajasthan and Punjab it hardly matters. You are the in charge. What do you have to say adhyaksh-ji?" The last was to  PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasara, who was also present.

A beaming Gehlot took the banter further. "I am the permanent in-charge here," he said. 

The meeting of the Congress unit of Rajasthan saw a closed-door interaction between Sachin Pilot -- now Punjab in-charge, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who is in charge of Rajasthan, Gehlot, then leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Tika Ram Jully and PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasara.

The meeting has been called in Rajasthan ahead of the panchayat elections to discuss the party's core strategy and candidate selection. 

In the recently concluded urban local body polls, the Congress performed well with just a 1 per cent difference in vote share, but lost out in terms of organisational strength.

The party managed to form boards in only 94 urban local bodies in the state as compared to the BJP's 197.

An internal committee headed by former speaker CP Joshi is examining how the Congress lost the tactical advantage in many cities, especially Pali and Ajmer, where it had the numbers but could not form the boards. 

In as many as 113 local bodies there was cross voting and failure to secure Independents, said a source in the Congress. 

Senior leaders like Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot largely stayed away from the party's campaign for the urban local body polls, leaving it to the state organisation and local MLAs to handle the campaign and the formation of the boards. 

But after the visit of party general secretary KC Venugopal, the senior leaders have met to brainstorm ahead of the panchayat elections. 
After the meeting, Pilot said, "We will go to villages, we will win and improve our performance in the panchayat polls. There is a fertiliser crisis in Rajasthan and the government is not being able to deliver. The BJP is misusing official machinery to win the polls. We will give tickets to candidates with a clean image and will perform well in Rajasthan," he added.