Up in arms

The Congress said the party is supreme and will fight the Rajasthan Assembly polls unitedly to emerge victorious, an assertion that came a day after former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot refused to budge from his demands from the Ashok Gehlot government to act against corruption. Speaking in his Assembly constituency Tonk, Pilot on Wednesday said that action would have to be taken on the issues that he had raised, particularly on corruption in the previous BJP rule.The infighting in the Congress’ Rajasthan unit had escalated a few weeks back with Pilot demanding action by the state government against “corruption” during the previous Vasundhara Raje government. In a bid to defuse the tensions, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi had held marathon discussions with Gehlot and Pilot separately. After the meetings, the party had said Chief Minister Gehlot and Pilot have agreed to fight the upcoming assembly elections unitedly and have left all issues to be resolved by the party high command.Gehlot and Pilot have been engaged in a power tussle since the Congress formed government in the state in 2018. In 2020, Pilot led a revolt against the Gehlot government after which he was removed from the posts of the party’s state unit president and deputy chief minister. Last year, an attempt by the high command to effect a leadership change in Rajasthan had failed.