The Congress on Tuesday sacked Sachin Pilot from the posts of Rajasthan's deputy chief minister and the party's state unit chief. Cracking the whip on the rebel party leader, the party also removed his loyalists Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena from the state cabinet.
Following the news, Pilot has changed his Twitter bio, removing all details regarding the Congress positions held by him. He also took to the social media platform, stating that the truth could be "disturbed, not defeated".
As the events unfold, many BJP leaders have also weighed in on the crisis.
Rajya Sabha MP and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy wondered how Sachin Pilot had spent so many years with the Congress, adding that "if Sachin returns to Congi then it will be like Jitendra Prasad".
"How can Sachin Pilot have survived so many years in Congi when we know what happened to his father when Gehlot was CM and TDK and that cockroach Arjun Singh were ruling the roost in Delhi?" wondered Swamy in a Twitter post.
For the uninitiated, Sachin's father, the late Rajeshwar Prasad Singh Bidhuri had been a Congress leader and a MP from Dausa in Rajasthan. He had been an Air Force pilot before resigning in 1979 to join politics, reportedly having been influenced by his friend Rajiv Gandhi. A year later, he contested Lok Sabha elections. It was around this time that he took the name Pilot.
While the senior Pilot was a popular leader, he had riled fellow members of the Party on several occasions. When the PV Narasimha Rao-led government was at the helm, he had been the Internal Security Minister. As per reports, Rajesh Pilot had had controversial godman Chandraswami arrested in spite of his alleged close ties with the party leadership.
He had also taken on Sitaram Kesari, opting to contest the 1997 polls for selecting the Congress President. Sharad Pawar had also joined the fray. Eventually, Kesari would go on to win the leadership position. But this does not seem to have completely deterred Pilot.
There are also reports that suggest he had wished to challenge Sonia Gandhi when she took over the party's reigns in . Fellow party leaders are believed to have talked him out of it.
In June 2000 Rajesh Pilot passed away after a car accident near Jaipur. As per a Telegraph report, his Jeep had collided with a bus, and later succumbed to injuries. As per the publication, while there had been no indication of foul play, newspapers had received an anonymous fax that pointed an accusing finger at a controversial godman.
