Jaipur: A few days after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that he had lobbied for Sachin Pilot as Union Minister in UPA-2, the latter on Wednesday said that he had ensured a ticket for his son Vaibhav Gehlot in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“The high command was not very much in favor of this ticket, because a single name had come from Jodhpur, whose father was the sitting Chief Minister, so at that time I advocated Vaibhav’s case. I told Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi that Vaibhav has worked in my executive, he should get a chance.
“As a state party President at that time, I did not want that Ashok ji, being the new Chief Minister, gets hurt, his morale should not be hurt, so I lobbied the CEC (Central Election Committee). I also told the CEC that Vaibhav should get the ticket. He got the ticket but we could not win the election. We lost the election by a huge margin,” he said in a media interaction after attending a cultural programme at Maharani College.
A few days back, Gehlot had said: “I had lobbied for Pilot for a minister’s post in the second term of UPA. Pilot called and requested cooperation in making him a minister, then I said that I have already given your name to the high command. At that time, this was not told to anyone.”
Pilot also said that the Congress government will be formed in Rajasthan after the next polls, noting that the time has come when the trend of alternate parties coming to power in Rajasthan should change.
(IANS)
