Winning Rajasthan is more important than who will be CM: Pilot

November 27, 2018 18:56

Seeking to ensure a united fight to dislodge the ruling BJP from Rajasthan, the state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said Tuesday his party's MLAs will decide on the chief minister post and asserted that securing a "thumping" mandate was far more important than a decision on who will head the government.

Pilot said he as well as senior party leader Ashok Gehlot have got enough from the Congress in the past and it was now for the party to decide what role they should have.

There have been persisting talks about both Pilot and Gehlot being in race to be the party's chief ministerial face, even as both the leaders have repeatedly rejected any such friction.

In an interview to PTI, Pilot said it was the party's stated policy for the last 70 years to not declare a CM face in the state and the priority was to ensure that Congress candidates win the elections to thwart the BJP's use of "money and muscle power".

Asked if a post-poll decision on the CM post may leave either Gehlot or him dissatisfied, Pilot said: "I don't think so. We have both received a lot from the party."

"He (Gehlot) has been chief minister twice already and he has got an important position in the party. I am (state) party president and I have been a minister. Both of us have got enough from the party and now it is time that the party decides what role they have in mind (for us)," the 41-year-old leader said.

Utimately, the MLAs in the Congress party will take a call as to who will head the government, he said.

"But, far more important than that is that we must get a good, clear, thumping majority, a resounding majority, because the message must go across the country that people --, farmers, young people, women, backwards, tribals, everybody -- will not take this kind of arrogant government and will make it accountable," Pilot said.

Forming the government is far more important than who will head it, he said.

"It is a decision that we have left to the party and it is nothing new for 70 years we have always had the same policy. I don't know why this time it has become so talked about. Every time we fight elections without announcing a CM face, and whenever we win, we elect a leader," Pilot said.

The Congress has kept open the issue of its leadership in Rajasthan. It has fielded both Pilot and Gehlot in the December 7 assembly polls. -- PTI

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