Those who do 'Thari-Mhari' can never become successful, loyal to party: Ashok Gehlot

Jaipur: In a veiled attack on his former deputy Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said that those who create factions ("Thari-Mhari karte hai") can never become successful and never be loyal to the party.

The statement came on a day Pilot launched a 125-km-long "Jan Sangharsh Yatra" from Ajmer to Jaipur to raise the issue of corruption and the leaking of question papers for state government recruitment exams.

Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads over the chief minister's post ever since the Congress formed the government in Rajasthan in December 2018. Their simmering tussle for power came out in public in July 2020, when Pilot led a failed rebellion in the party for a change in leadership in the state.

The feud resurfaced in recent weeks after Pilot sat on a symbolic day-long dharna against the Gehlot government to press it to act in cases of alleged corruption during the previous Vasundhara Raje dispensation.

"In a democracy, those who take everyone along become successful and those who create factions can never become successful," Gehlot said after inaugurating a statue of former Congress leader Pandit Nawal Kishore Sharma in Jaipur. "I have always tried in my life to take everyone along," he added.

Gehlot asserted that he has worked his entire life to uphold the party's principles and policies with "allegiance, honesty, and commitment". He said he has worked to "lengthen the line instead of shortening it".

"Those indulging in factionalism (Thari-Mhari karte hai) can never become successful. They are never loyal to the party. Loyalty is very important," he said.

Referring to his past differences with Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal, Gehlot said he had offered him a ministerial post when he became the chief minister in 1998.

"Be it anyone's man, I selected everyone at that time with a thought that he is a person from Congress, party high command and Sonia Gandhi. I respected and honoured everyone and progressed by winning the hearts of people," Gehlot said.

He also hit out at the BJP for doing politics over religion and said the real issues are inflation, unemployment, and not divisive politics.