Sachin Pilot meets Sonia Gandhi amid Cabinet reshuffle buzz in Rajasthan

Pilot for long has been demanding that Cabinet expansion should happen

Former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Friday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi amid talks of an imminent reshuffle in Ashok Gehlot ministry and expressed confidence that "very soon" there will be a decision that will consider "credibility, performance, regional balance and caste combination" as factors for assignments.

Pilot's meeting with Sonia comes a day after Chief Minister Gehlot's meeting during which the contours of the reshuffle was discussed. Pilot had earlier met Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal while Gehlot had a meeting with Congress General Secretaries Priyanka Gandhi, Venugopal, Ajay Maken in the past couple of days.

"Extensive discussions took place about Rajasthan, about the government, party organisation, and I put forward my points about the political situation in the state. I am happy that the Congress president is constantly taking interest in Rajasthan and is taking feedback about the work of the government and on the organisation," Pilot told reporters after the hour-long meeting.

Also read: Will Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot tiff end with Rajasthan cabinet reshuffle?

Dismissing division within Congress, he said there is no factionalism in the party as depicted by the media. "We won on the symbol of the party and this is not the time for 'tera-mera', we are moving together in Rajasthan. There are some posts vacant in the government and balance has to be maintained. They have to be filled to set the balance in the government," he said.

Emphasising that he was more than happy to do whatever the party assigns him, he said that the committee set up by Sonia to look into the issues raised by him a year ago has also competed its work. Venugopal and Maken were submitting reports from time to time.

"The party high command is also talking about taking action on the points we had put forward last year and I think very soon decisions will be taken on it," he said while citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the delay in deciding on the cabinet and organisational reshuffle.

Also Read | Ashok Gehlot meets Priyanka Gandhi, Ajay Maken over possible cabinet reshuffle in Rajasthan

"I think whatever changes that need to be made in the government and organisation, the AICC and the chief minister will decide at an appropriate time. But I believe that now less than two years time is left in the next election and we want to fight the next election with full force because there has always been a custom that for five years there is a Congress government in Rajasthan, and then for five years, there is a BJP government," he added.

He further mentioned, "This time we want to prepare the organisation very strongly. The workers should get respect, everyone's participation is important, there should be balance in power, and we should move forward taking all sections of the society along."

With the party going in for the "one man, one post" formula, Rajasthan Congress President and Minister Govind Singh Dotasra as well as ministers Raghu Sharma and Harish Chaudhary may have to sit out. Sharma and Chaudhary are also party in-charges in Gujarat and Punjab respectively.

In such a scenario, there will be 12 vacancies. At present, Gehlot Ministry has 21 ministers and it can have up to 30 ministers.

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