The crisis in the Rajasthan Congress is averted – for now for sure – with the ‘homecoming’ of Sachin Pilot, who had rebelled against his boss, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last month. The truce came after an intense intervention by top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra that culminated in Sachin Pilot meeting her and brother Rahul Gandhi today. It is also being linked to BJP leader Vasundhara Raje Scindia’s complete disinterest is supporting Pilot in his ambition to be Rajasthan Chief Minister. 

As the cacophonous political crisis unfolded in Rajasthan with the warring Congress sides attacking each other and Ashok Gehlot camp accusing 42-year-old Sachin Pilot of teaming up with the BJP to topple his government, the undeterred silence of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje rung out loud, apparently forcing into wait-and-watch mode the BJP, which has jumped in other states to wrest power from the Congress at the hint of a rift in the latter party. 

Raje, according to the sources, refused to fall in with any plan to join hands with the Pilot camp to pull down the Ashok Gehlot government. 

Read: ‘Yes, we met…’: Sachin Pilot signals end of Rajasthan crisis after meeting Gandhis

 The 67-year-old BJP leader had punctuated her silence late last month with an acerbic tweet that seemed to send a message to the Congress, and possibly the BJP too.”The Congress is trying to shift the blame on the BJP and the party’s leadership,” Raje tweeted, adding there was no point in trying to drag the BJP and its leaders’ names through mud. “It is the interest of our people that must remain paramount,” she said.

The BJP, accused by Gehlot of conspiring with Pilot to try and snatch power in the state by luring his MLAs, officially kept a distance from the big fight, calling it the Congress’s “internal problem”.

Soon after the announcement today of the meeting between Sachin Pilot and the Gandhis, the BJP’s Rajasthan chief Satish Poonia tweeted: “We had been saying all along – it is the Congress’s internal fight and it was needlessly blaming the BJP. Poor Rajasthan had to watch Congress’s 31-day Ramlila…sister Priyanka Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi woke up late….Now that your crisis is resolved, apologise to the people and do some work.”

The Congress has insisted that the BJP’s hand in the Sachin Pilot rebellion was clear in the fact that 18 Rajasthan MLAs loyal to him were sequestered at a resort in Haryana, which neighbours Rajasthan and is ruled by the BJP. The BJP rubbished the charges, maintaining it had nothing to do with the Congress crisis and said it would not even push for Ashok Gehlot to prove majority on the floor of the assembly. It did of course demand a floor test soon enough. 

Sources said without Raje’s cooperation, the BJP could do little. Rajasthan is a rare state where regional leaders enjoy more influence over MLAs than the central leadership. The BJP has 72 MLAs in the state and 45 of them are extremely loyal to Vasundhara Raje.

Raje, unseated by the Congress as Rajasthan chief minister in the 2018 elections, has flexed muscle before to demonstrate her continued might in the state’s politics. She had famously held her ground in 2018 over the question of choosing a state unit chief while then BJP president Amit Shah wanted to appoint Gajendra Singh Shekhawat — who is now a union minister and was accused of bribing the Congress MLAs.

Raje was unmoved and after a 71-day stalemate, Madan Lal Saini, a relative lightweight was appointed. As for Ashok Gehlot, its a smooth road ahead, at least for now. He has the support of 102 MLAs in the 200-member assembly, which is just one over the majority mark and with the 19 rebels now back in the fold, he is sure to sail through the trust vote on August 14.