ON FRIDAY, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted a video clip of Sachin Pilot appealing for votes, referring to him as “the Congress’s young leader”. Coming a day after campaigning for the Rajasthan elections had ended, the video followed the BJP’s line of attack in the last stretch accusing the Congress of having “punished” Pilot's father Rajesh Pilot once, and of “punishing” him now. That Gehlot led what appears to be the Congress’s counter was also significant, given that the CM and Pilot, his former deputy, have no love lost. On the other side, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who himself led the Rajesh Pilot front against the Congress. The objective of both the parties is not difficult to decode. The Pilots belong to the Gujjar community, estimated to be around 9-10% of the population in Rajasthan and consequential to the outcome of 40-odd seats in its eastern parts (out of the state's total of 200). The Congress won most of these seats last time, largely on the Gujjar expectation that Pilot would become CM if the party won. His ineffectual efforts to claim the post since, and consequent sidelining, may hurt the Congress among the Gujjars, as reported by The Indian Express. The Gujjar belt includes a dozen-odd districts, from Alwar to Jhalawar, the latter a stronghold of BJP heavyweight Vasundhara Raje. Congress sources close to Pilot say the release of the video was part of a carefully considered strategy, after the realisation that the BJP’s interpretation of the Rajesh Pilot episode — apparently pertaining to his participation in the contest for the Congress president’s post in 1997 — might strike a chord with the Gujjars as well as the tribal Meenas. While the two groups share an uneasy relationship, both had rallied behind Pilot last time. As the state Congress president then, Pilot had also given tickets to many Meena leaders, and many of his staunch supporters continue to be from the community. The Pilot camp also believes the PM’s barb was meant to influence a large section of youngsters and ex-servicemen in the state. Rajesh Pilot was a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force, under his formal name Rajeshwar Prasad, before he joined politics. Sachin Pilot himself is a commissioned officer in the Territorial Army, and his social media feed often has photos of him in uniform. Sources said that in a last-minute strategy, the Congress central leadership got Pilot to record the video and Gehlot to tweet it. It was also a significant change of course for the Congress campaign that has focused on Gehlot all through. “The Congress leadership, be it party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, or Pilot, all were reduced to bindis (mugshots) in the campaign posters. Gehlot towered above all in the posters. So the campaign was evidently all about Gehlot,” a leader said. Sources said that apart from the video where Gehlot endorsed Pilot, the posters too were changed in the last stretch at the instance of the central leadership. Even Pilot’s campaign tours saw a rejig. Initially, while he even spent two days in Madhya Pradesh campaigning, he did not canvass across Rajasthan. Neither did senior Congress leaders like C P Joshi, Dotasra and campaign committee chief Govind Meghwal, but the first two understandably focused on their seats as they are facing a stiff challenge there. In the last few days, the AICC ensured that Pilot got a chopper, and requested him to travel all across eastern Rajasthan and address as many campaign rallies as possible. In the past week, he addressed four-five rallies a day. Besides, the party requested him to record video messages for 60-odd constituencies separately. Due to paucity of time, he eventually recorded one video, which was modified with minimal edits for the different constituencies. It is this video that was tweeted by Gehlot Friday.
