NEW DELHI: Top leaders of the Congress were on Thursday holding deliberations with the party's leaders in Rajasthan on the strategy and poll preparedness, while also seeking to resolve the tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, AICC in-charge of state Sukhjinder Randhawa, state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra, Pilot and other senior leaders from Rajasthan met at the party headquarters here at 11 am.
Chief Minister Gehlot, who is recovering from fractures in both his toes, is attending the meeting via video conferencing, sources said.
Rahul Gandhi is also set to hold a press conference at the party headquarters here this afternoon.
Kharge has been chairing key strategy meetings with leaders of poll-bound states.
He has already held separate meetings with leaders of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
All eyes are on Rajasthan as the Congress is looking to buck the revolving door trend of the incumbent party being voted out of power and the Gehlot-Pilot tussle making matters more complicated for the party for the upcoming assembly polls.
At an event marking the death anniversary of his father Rajesh Pilot last month, Sachin Pilot said people's trust is the "biggest asset" him and asserted that he will keep fighting to get them justice and not back down on his demands.
The pilot had been attacking the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan over alleged inaction on charges of corruption levelled by him against the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP dispensation.
The state's former deputy chief minister has also demanded disbanding of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission and its reconstitution, as well as definitive action by the government as well as compensation for the victims of job exam paper leaks.
Interestingly, two days before the strategy meeting, Gehlot on Tuesday said that the Rajasthan government will bring a bill in the next assembly session to increase the quantum of punishment for those involved in recruitment exam paper leaks from 10 years to life imprisonment.
In a bid to defuse the tensions, Congress chiefs Kharge and Gandhi had held marathon discussions with Gehlot and Pilot separately in May.
They had later posed for photographs at Kharge's 10 Rajaji Marg residence here.
After the meetings, the party said Gehlot and Pilot have agreed to fight the upcoming assembly elections unitedly and had left all issues to be resolved by the party's 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 after Gehlot loyalists dug their heels in and did not allow a legislature party meeting to take place.
Pilot had last month defied a warning from the party and went ahead with a day-long fast targeting Gehlot over his "inaction" on alleged corruption during the previous Raje government.
