Opinion: How the long-drawn Gehlot-Pilots feud can hurt Congress' chances in Rajasthan

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, the second time as farce."

Karl Marx's centuries-old statement might as well come back to haunt Congress once the Rajasthan elections are declared. Reason? Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's acrimonious relationship with former deputy Sachin Pilot, also key to the Grand Old Party's plan of returning to power, and his father, the late Rajesh Pilot, is nothing more than a classic case of history repeating itself -- one that could cost the Congress dearly in the poll-bound state.

Gehlot's decades-long rivalry with the Pilots has, time and again, proved to be a sour point for the Gandhis, so much so that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't shy away from taking a potshot at Gehlot and the Congress over this at a recent election rally in Rajasthan. “Rajesh Pilot once challenged the Gandhi family for the benefit of the party…Rajesh Pilot passed away but the Congress party is taking out its anger against his son," said PM Modi.

Nearly three years after Sachin Pilot revolted against the Ashok Gehlot government that kept Congress on the tenterhooks, PM Modi's timely attack can deepen the already-widening crack within the fragile state unit.

The tale of Gehlot and two Pilots is one that reeks of a rivalry gone off the rails.

Once part of the defence forces, Rajesh Pilot quickly climbed up the political ladder. Owing to his close ties with then-PM Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay, Pilot was given a ticket from the party stronghold in the Hindi heartbelt -- Bharatpur.

The year was 1997. Rajesh Pilot stood against Sitaram Kesri for the Congress party president's post. Pilot was soon seen as a threat to Sonia Gandhi. The fallout with the Gandhis proved to be a blessing for Gehlot, who was eying for the CM post in Rajasthan.

Few years back, when Pilot was the Union Communications Minister in the Narasimha Rao government, he had visited Jodhpur for inaugurating a building of the main post office. However, an invite was not sent to the then-Jodhpur MP Gehlot. Seen as an insult to their leader, angry Gehlot supporters protested against the move. When confronted, Pilot sarcastically said that Gehlot must be somewhere around -- what followed was a decade-long battle to outdo one another.

While Gehlot was the Congress High Command's top choice for Rajasthan's CM face ahead of the 1998 Rajasthan Assembly polls, the Rajesh Pilot camp unsuccessfully tried to derail Gehlot's ambition by putting forward top leaders like Shiv Charan Mathur and Parasram Maderna. The following year Rajesh Pilot failed to secure a huge win from his home constituency in Dausa in the Lok Sabha elections. It was no secret as to why Pilot's margin thinned down to 10,000.

More than two decades later, similar parallels were being drawn by the media when Sachin Pilot had staged a rebellion against Gehlot. Even though Gehlot won round one resulting in the sacking of Sachin Pilot from the Deputy CM's post, the battle is far from over as a new chapter unfolds in Rajasthan on December 3.