Before Election, Sachin Pilot in Action; After Rajasthan Yatra, Leader Meets Protesting Wrestlers in Delhi

Dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Friday met the protesting wrestlers at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. The meeting comes at a time when Pilot has been holding demonstration in Rajasthan over various corruption issues amid a power tussle with chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

“If justice is not done in time, then it’s injustice. Why the delay in justice to people who made us so proud,” Pilot said.

India’s top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, are staging a sit-in at the Jantar Mantar, demanding the arrest of BJP MP and WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for allegedly sexually harassing seven women grapplers.

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala, who hails from Haryana, had also visited the protest site and met the wrestlers, and expressed solidarity with their demands.

Meanwhile in Rajasthan, Pilot, the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister, had last week began a “Jan Sangharsh Yatra” to raise issues of corruption and government recruitment exam paper leaks.

Pilot began the foot march from Ajmer on Thursday, challenging CM Gehlot and the party’s top brass as assembly elections in Rajasthan approach.

The march comes days after Gehlot accused the MLAs involved in the 2020 revolt of taking money from the BJP. Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs had then sought a leadership change in Rajasthan.

In 2020, Pilot had led a failed revolt against the Gehlot government after which he was removed from the posts of party state unit president and deputy chief minister.

The two Congress strongmen in Rajasthan have been at loggerheads over the post of chief minister ever since the party formed the government in the state in 2018.