Congress leader Ashok Gehlot who recently lost in the Rajasthan Assembly Elections, could face more troubles as he has been accused of tapping the phone of Sachin Pilot and snooping on him. While responding to a query, the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot admitted that Sachin Pilot’s movements were being followed and his phone was tapped.
As per a News18 report, Gehlot’s OSD Lokesh Sharma made serious allegations against the former CM of Rajasthan. Sharma said that Gehlot was tracking the movement and communication of Congress leader Sachin Pilot. He was asked whether Sachin Pilot’s phone was being tapped and were his movements followed as has been alleged by the supporters of the Congress leader. Responding to the query, Sharma said, “It’s common knowledge for sure that where he was going, who he was meeting, who he was speaking to was kept track of.”
Following his admission, News18 reported that Sachin Pilot is likely to raise the issue at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting. Pilot has stated that he would speak freely at the meeting. He said, “What Lokesh Sharma has said must be taken cognizance of and deliberated on.”
Gehlot’s OSD, who was refused a ticket to contest in the state assembly elections, has said that Gehlot cheated the party’s high command and prevented accurate feedback from reaching the top.
He stated that he had expressed the desire to contest the elections from Bikaner and then from Bhilwara. These are the seat that Congress was losing for 20 years, but Gehlot “refused to experiment”, he added.
Sharma also said that Congress could have easily prevented the defeat in Rajasthan if it had taken corrective measures in time. Speaking with News18, Gehlot’s OSD Sharma said, “Based on my surveys, I had told the CM that he needed to change the sitting MLAs and also pay heed to the paper leak issue mentioned by Sachin ji. Their infighting took a toll on the party in an election we could have won.”
It is not clear how the Congress leadership will handle the infighting between the two leaders, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot but the latter has firmly expressed that he will not leave Rajasthan. As per reports, in that case, the grand old party could adopt measures as it did in 2019 and appoint Sachin Pilot as the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress President in the wake of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
