Congress ropes in Kamal Nath to fix Rajasthan crisis

Nath is learnt to have also had a meeting with veteran Haryana leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Sources said the talks are being held at the instance of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi.

Sources said Kharge told Venugopal to meet Pilot and hear his side of the story before coming to a decision. Pilot, sources said, was of the view that demanding action into alleged cases of corruption against the Raje government cannot be termed as an anti-party activity.

He is learnt to have argued that the party had gone into elections in 2018 highlighting corruption charges against the previous BJP administration under Vasundhara Raje and the government should be seen as taking action.

The day saw a series of meetings to resolve the tussle. Venugopal and party’s Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa met Kharge and Rahul separately, after which Venugopal met Nath to seek his intervention.

Venugopal and Pilot then drove to Nath’s residence. Sources said the meeting lasted for half-an-hour. Nath subsequently met Venugopal and Randhawa separately before heading to meet Hooda.

The move to rope in veteran Nath is interesting since he and Gehlot go back a long way in Congress politics. A section of party leaders claimed Randhawa’s late-night statement on Monday, warning Pilot that his fast would be against interests of the party and would be treated as “anti-party activity”, had complicated matters. Before that, Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh had issued a statement backing Gehlot, pushing Pilot to a corner.