'Forgive, forget, move on…first win, then CM question': Sachin Pilot on past acrimony with Ashok Gehlot

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has had an acrimonious relationship with Pilot in the past, accusing him of trying to bring down the Congress government and also calling him "nakara" and "gaddar". Opening up on this issue, Pilot said the two leaders were now united. "Mallikarjun Kharge told me…you have to forget, forgive and move on. Words once spoken are never taken back. We have to look beyond that and we are working unitedly. For us, personal likes and dislikes take a back seat when you have to look at the people of Rajasthan who expect something from us," Pilot told News18 in Tonk.

He said a lot was amiss in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), given how former CM Vasundhara Raje was being sidelined and said the BJP has proven to be an ineffective opposition. Pilot also claimed that the "wave in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana was helping the Congress in Rajasthan as well".

The last time, Tonk had a BJP MLA was when I contested. People supported me to win by a handsome margin. Not just in my constituency of Tonk, there is a palpable sense in most voters that we have to break this trend of the past three decades that you change the government every five years. The broad sense I have got in my travels is that people are looking to repeat the Congress government.

I say this because of the work the Congress government has done and also the fact that the BJP has proven to be an ineffective opposition. The BJP was missing on the streets and even in the assembly for most of the past five years. The amount of vigor they should have shown for people's issues was missing. Now in the last three months, to stand on a truck and do a yatra and expect people to vote for you, I do not think it will work this time. So I am confident that Congress will make a comeback.

It was not an exchange. I was quite restrained in the words I used and that is the way I have done my politics in the past 25 years. I do not want to talk about that as it is in the past and we have to look at the future. Like Mr Mallikarajun Kharge had told me when I went to see him in Delhi, he said you have to forgive, forget and move on. That is the mantra that holds true for all of us in the Congress. The time that has gone by is gone and will not return. Words once spoken are never taken back. We have to look beyond that and we are working unitedly in the Rajasthan Congress in terms of selecting candidates and campaigning, and there are no pulls and pressures unlike the BJP. For us, personal likes and dislikes, ambitions and choices take a back seat when you have to look at people of Rajasthan, who expect something from us. We have to work together and we are working together. We have to win the election and then see what happens.

What is most important is for us to win. Once we win, then we will see what the MLAs and the leadership decide to do.

That could be the sentiment. The party has given space to all its leaders and as far as I am concerned, whatever job I have been given, in Jaipur or in Delhi or in the organisation, I have done it to the fullest to serve the people. What will happen in the future, even I don't know. All I can say is that our first job is to get a majority and secure the mandate. Once we do that, the MLAs will decide who leads the government.

Well, the difference is that in the BJP, central leaders come and say vote for the lotus and vote on the PM's face. The PM will not change his job and become the CM. In Rajasthan, we are all state leaders and the tradition in Rajasthan has been that winning MLAs and leadership in Delhi decide who will head the government. We are not seeking votes in the name of someone sitting in Delhi. We are seeking votes in the name of the leadership sitting in Rajasthan and the work we have done.

Paper leak obviously is a serious issue, and not just here, but anywhere in the country. It is wrong for us to not take action when young people's hard work of years goes to waste. Poor families spend money on tuitions and coaching for young people. I am happy that the government has passed a new law in Rajasthan, with a penalty of life imprisonment, which is proving to be a deterrent. I felt this was an issue, which we should have taken up, and I am glad we did.

Also, for the BJP to claim law and order (is bad) exclusively in Rajasthan, look at what is happening in Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh. Yes, it is a state subject, but wherever there has been an incident, the action taken is what counts and the government has acted in appropriate fashion and, most times, the culprits have been caught. Now to give them adequate punishment is the job of the judiciary. There are many other states, which are performing the worst. Here in Rajasthan, making a First Information Report (FIR) is compulsory to ensure justice, so that is why the number of cases being reported is higher.

I don't think it is right to say there is no anti-incumbency, but there is nine years of anti-incumbency against the central government and the disarray that the BJP is currently in Rajasthan. There is inflation, job losses and disparity between the rich and poor is increasing, the way institutions have been politicised — young people are seeing all this and it is working against the BJP nationally. The wave in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana is helping the Congress’s prospects in Rajasthan. People are willing to give the Congress in Rajasthan another chance.

A lot is amiss there. On individuals, it is their internal matter and I can’t say much, but from what I see, there is a lot of dissent and outcry over tickets they have declared. What they do to their leaders is very well-known. They are only talking about religions and masjid-mandir. There are protests over their tickets announced so far. They don't have any vision or roadmap for the future. They are just abusing Congress and making false allegations.