JAIPUR: The tussle between the Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot camps in Rajasthan Congress over alleged discrimination against Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) MLAs has reached the party high command in Delhi.
Rift in the state unit has intensified after statements from former minister Ramesh Meena and MLAs Murari Lal Meena and Ved Prakash Solanki, who claimed that the government is trying to suppress the voice of MLAs representing SC/ST and minorities, as they have been allotted Assembly seats without microphones.
All three Congress MLAs to have spoken to the media about this alleged bias were part of the Pilot rebellion against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last year.
On Friday, these MLAs accused the state government of discriminating against legislators of SC/ST and minority communities, with Ramesh even threatening to resign. Besides Gehlot, the Congress Chief Whip in the Assembly, Mahesh Joshi has also been targeted by the Pilot supporters. With the Pilot loyalists threatening to meet Rahul Gandhi, Joshi also reached Delhi on Saturday.
During debate in the Assembly over many MLAs being provided seats with no microphones, Ramesh and Solanki trained their guns on Joshi. They claimed that Joshi did not show sensitivity or seriousness in providing seats for SC/ST and minority MLAs. They also argued that while some MLAs are given a chance to speak in the House on many occasions, several SC/ST and minority MLAs are ignored.
According to sources, the Congress state unit is taking the charges made by the Pilot loyalists seriously. But senior leaders have instructed others not to make public statements. While the state Congress has collected statements and video footage of allegations made by the Pilot loyalists, they refused to make comments.Though Joshi admitted that he is in Delhi, he refused to speak on the allegations.