Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Thursday, 28 April, called out a news story by NDTV on purported friction within the party's Rajasthan unit for being "factually incorrect," asserting that it was based on hearsay.
"Dear @ndtvindia, This story is factually incorrect based only on hearsay and innuendos. We expect better reporting standards. You have to set the bar higher in times of muddled, noisy television," Surjewala wrote on Twitter.
The article in question reports, citing sources, that party leader Sachin Pilot has asked the Congress top brass to take a decision on changing the chief minister of Rajasthan. NDTV reported that Pilot had conveyed to the Congress leadership that if a decision is not taken in due time, then Rajasthan, which goes to polls next year, will be lost by the party in the same way as Punjab.
Congress had lost power in Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Assembly polls, the results of which were declared on 10 March.
Sachin Pilot's Meeting With Sonia Gandhi
The report came after Sachin Pilot met interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi last week, a day after Gehlot also met the party chief. "Congress president is very keen that we all work unitedly to form a government in Rajasthan again. I've been giving her my feedback regularly. Today we also spoke about organisational elections, how to strengthen the party," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI after the meeting.
This comes ahead of a 'Chintan Shivir' to be held by the Congress from 13-15 May in Udaipur, to introspect on party reforms after a hard defeat in the recently held Assembly elections in five states.
In 2020, Pilot has launched a revolt against the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government along with 18 MLAs, on the issues of organisation within the party's state unit. Pilot was subsequently dismissed as the state’s deputy chief minister and Rajasthan Congress president. The party’s high command had to step in to mitigate the crisis that ensued.
Pilot had accused the AICC team of ignoring the promises made to him and his team after a patch up with the party and returning to its fold, post his rebellion.
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