Congress: Is Sachin Pilot going to be a thorn in Kharge's flesh?

New Delhi: Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot is likely to up the ante against chief minister Ashok Gehlot as he seeks to put pressure on new Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to take a call on his future role in the party.

In 8 days after Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor to become the Congress president, Pilot twice met him and sought an early resolution to the Rajasthan impasse.

However, Kharge is unlikely to take up the issue immediately as he does not want to rock the boat soon after taking over the reins of the grand old party from Sonia Gandhi.

Kharge has limited options as far as Rajasthan is concerned. If he dethrones Gehlot, there is a risk of a split in the party. Gehlot had already displayed his prowess and control over the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) last month when his loyalists boycotted a meeting to select his successor and pave the way for the veteran leader to file his nomination papers for the party chief’s election.

Interestingly, Kharge and Ajay Maken were the two central observers of the meeting that did not take place due to the ruckus created by the Gehlot loyalists, prompting the chief minister to take moral responsibility for the incident and tender an apology to Sonia Gandhi on their behalf. He later withdrew from the Congress presidential elections.

The other option for Kharge is to appoint Pilot as the Rajasthan Congress president and let Gehlot continue as the chief minister till the assembly elections in November-December next year.

But replacing incumbent Govind Singh Dotasra, a Jat leader, will be a tough task given that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going all out to woo the members of the community.

While its state president Satish Poonia is a jat, the saffron party fielded Jagdeep Dhankhar as its vice-presidential candidate in this year’s elections.

Dhankhar, a prominent Jat leader of Rajasthan, won the elections and is currently holding the post.

The third option before Kharge is to name Pilot as the party’s chief ministerial candidate and fight the next year’s assembly elections under his leadership.

Given that Rajasthan is a cyclic state with no party having retained power for decades now, Gehlot and his loyalists might not have any objection to the idea.

Apart from negating the anti-incumbency against the Congress government, Pilot will have to ensure that his party retains the power to create a history in Rajasthan though odds appear heavily stacked against him.

That said, Pilot will continue to be a thorn in Kharge’s flesh till he resolves the Rajasthan imbroglio.