Rahul was the lone ace up his sleeve, which he hoped would be his trump when the time comes. He played his hand well, but ran into a sleight of hand, an art he was not versed with.
It was raining the day Sachin Pilot, 37, walked into the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office to assume charge of a state left battered and shaking by a hulk of an opponent in BJP, which muscled its way to power in Rajasthan with an incredible 163 seats. On the counting day, even Gehlot couldn’t believe his eyes when the counter on the television, channel after channel, showed the impossible- Congress was routed like never before, reduced to just 21 seats in a 200-member assembly cobbling up a number by a whisker to at least nominate the leader of the Opposition from its stable of elected members.
Enter Sachin, at a time when the morale of the workers was at its lowest and the old guards left to lick their wounds were sceptical of fresh blood taking over the reins of the party.
For, Pilot and Gehlot are like chalk and cheese. One has been groomed to be articulate in spoken Hindi and English, having journeyed the world in youth and seen power dressing and drubbing from close quarters, while having his luncheon with illustrious parents and dining with the who’s who of the national polity.
The other overcame his congenital lisp and lack of oratory skills to groom himself as the messiah of poor and not only projected himself as the true disciple of Mahatma Gandhi but also went to great pains to walk the talk in his own inimitable way. At public events, his team would ensure cocktails were conspicuously missing from the menu. He would bring down the shutters on the liquor outlets forcing early closure on them. In his second stint as chief ministerial, he rushed to the victims of illicit liquor the same night he was sworn in for the top post.
Pilot, on the other hand, had a tough time finding his way through the caste cauldron that the state had found itself in over reservation, his own community being at the heart of the restlessness. He went about building his team, slowly picking cautiously from the old and the eager, young and the restless.
The bypolls held in 2014 and 2018 got him the sweet taste of victory even as the results were nothing more than a dent to the BJP which still sat comfortably with 23 MPs and 156 MLAs. But, he showed the team, it can be done and that the BJP isn’t invincible, after all.
His camaraderie with AICC president Rahul Gandhi is legendary. Rahul backslapped him once asking him to answer the question by a journo if he is a young leader. “Ask Him,” said Gandhi, “I’m no longer a youth?” To which Pilot answered, “You are as young as your heart is”, much to the amusement of his company and the lone ace up his sleeve, which he hoped would be his trump when the time comes. He played his hand well, but ran into a sleight of hand, an art he was not versed with.
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 "Sachin Pilot")
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