Rajasthan’s former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, who returned to the state on Tuesday ahead of the crucial Assembly session from August 14 after reaching an understanding with the top Congress leadership, said that he was “quite hurt” with the statements made against him since the crisis erupted.
“The kind of words used against me left me quite hurt,” he said at a press conference here.
Pilot, who was also the state Congress chief but was removed after his rebellion, also said that he had not demanded any post from the party.
He stressed that he never made any statement against the party and in fact, went to Delhi to discuss issues with the Congress high command.
“I never ever demanded any post from the party. However, the kind of words used against me left me sad and shocked,” he said, adding that there should not be any space for any “vendetta politics”.
He also termed as “unjustified” the SOG notice, with sedition charges, which was sent to him, adding that he wanted to narrate the entire episode of the SOG and the ACB to the party leadership. “The suspension orders, police case and all such episodes were not all positive,” he added.
“We simply wanted to present our issues to the party high command and never had any intentions to go against the party,” he maintained.
“We never gave any statement which was anti-party,” he added.
There was a huge gathering of supporters outside his residence to give a rousing welcome to the leader who preferred driving down to Jaipur from New Delhi in his car.
Indicating an end to the rebellion in the Congress’ Rajasthan unit, a meeting took place between Pilot and his loyalists and the three-member panel formed by interim party chief Sonia Gandhi to look into their grievances, at the war room in the Congress headquarters in New Delhi on Monday evening.
The breakthrough, which had threatened the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state, followed after Pilot met top party leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi earlier on Monday. The two Gandhis subsequently held discussions with Sonia Gandhi, who in turn announced the formation of a three-member panel comprising Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel and K.C. Venugopal.