This when Rajasthan cops are battling BJP's Haryana Police to cordon and corner Sachin Pilot’s batch of congress MLAs. But there are doubts whether Pilot will join the BJP. Maybe that was his intention early on, when he must have had the thought that a golden lode of Congress MLAs would be walking out with him from the Congress ‘khema’. That didn’t happen and now it’s like Pilot will not be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. That much is a fait accompli post recent updates to his so-called rebellion including sacking from the post of deputy chief minister of Rajasthan. The “promising young leader” is also not anymore president of the state unit of the Congress.

To reiterate, Pilot is in no position to “return” to the Congress. And it’s not clearly apparent as to what he has gained from taking the “issue with the Congress high command and Gehlot” to the Rajasthan High Court. Even if he wins substantially on July 21/22 , it will be difficult for him to fit anew into a party he has taken to court, and that after alienating three-fourths of the top Congress leadership including members of the all-powerful Gandhi family.

And conflicting rumours are floating around. Some say Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is miffed with him. Others say that “she” will do him a good turn! But Pilot’s well-wishers are asking, “Can Sachin trust any of the Gandhis?” Of course, “appeals” from several Congress leaders to Pilot to “return” are in the public domain.

But even Pilot will admit that these were empty voices made perhaps as part of a routine exercise, nothing more and nothing less. The differences between Sachin Pilot and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot are insurmountable and irreconcilable. By now they have become “differences” between Pilot and the Congress high command.

A point of “no-return” has passed. And even if there are those who believe and assert that the BJP’s quest for a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ has been taken up by elements within the Congress, notably those who are looking for green pastures outside the Congress, the reality is that a cornered Congress is fighting back. The Congress leadership has identified “enemies” both inside and outside and are positioned in the trenches to take the fight home.

It’s a do-or-die battle and one that will be fought to “the end.” It began some time ago and there were skirmishes with Samanta Biswa Sarma and Jagan Mohan Reddy. Those were setbacks that signalled a slide in the hold of the Gandhi family over the Congress. When Jyotiraditya Scindia made his move, the party leadership was caught napping. It was as if paralyzed, unable to act or do anything.

But now with Sachin Pilot having unleashed a ‘Scindia’ on his party, the Congress leadership is aware that this time if it took things lying down that will be the beginning of the end of the current leadership of the Congress. One more ‘setback’ of the kind seen earlier and that will be kaput for the Gandhi family’s hold over the Congress.

And it doesn’t need for Sachin Pilot to join the BJP to rock the Congress party. A “Sachin victory” under the circumstances and conditions the Congress faces today will pilot a bill for change in the Congress that will be hard for the Congress leadership to defeat or sidetrack.

The Congress high command cannot afford a Sachin win at any cost. The Congress leadership has made a mistake in understanding the “promising young leader.” This young man is going for the kill and the real opposition to his “ambitions” is not Ashok Gehlot but the Gandhi family.

Sachin Pilot has bucked the ‘Gandhis’ and the Gandhi scions, including the alma mater, are not the forgetting sort. Their assortment of stalwarts, whose standings in the party are linked to that of the Gandhi family, have circled the wagons and are ready to wage a final last ditch battle.

Nothing short of outright victory will suffice. Come to think of it, nothing short of a clear win will suffice to both parties, whether it be the Congress party or Sachin Pilot. The BJP is there in the picture but its role is that of a silent partner and that only to Sachin Pilot. For now the BJP looks in only for a joyride without its hands on the joystick!

The difference between Sachin and Scindia is that Scindia’s exit from the Congress was in the final analysis calculated only as a “defection” considering that even he ditched the Congress only because he couldn’t become chief minister. Whatever else was said about the high profile move was rhetoric and song and dance.

And what did Scindia achieve from the shift? Nothing. All that Scindia does these days is to ttake to twitter to wish birthday wishes to this and that minister in the Modi Government. otherwise, there is not a word on what might be called his “rehabilitation,” so to speak.

Did Sachin Pilot seek such rehabilitation, and one that has not taken place to boot? Obviously, not. There have been reports that Pilot made a visit to Scindia’s residence soon after or just before he made his intentions clear to Gehlot and the Congress party. Pilot’s “sleek black sedan” was seen exiting the “Scindia Gate!”

At that time the only giveaway Sachin Pilot gave as far as his intentions was that “his MLAs” were in the “protection” of the police in BJP-ruled Haryana. (IPA Service)