Sachin Pilot sacked as Rajasthan's Deputy Chief Minister by Congress; 'conspired with BJP'

In a massive development, the Congress has sacked Sachin Pilot as Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, as well as the chief of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC), taking disciplinary action against its long-time leader following his failure to attend the second CLP meeting in Jaipur.

Apart from Pilot, two other cabinet ministers will be sacked from the party itself after they decided to stay back with Pilot and give the CLP meet a miss, which was seen as Congress' last-ditch attempt to mend fences with the miffed leader and his faction.

This follows the resolution passed by the Congress party in their second CLP meeting demanding disciplinary action against Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and the rebel MLAs. Sources say that 104 MLAs present at the ongoing Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting at Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur have unanimously demanded that Sachin Pilot should be removed from the party. The numbers are disputed, and the BJP is likely to move for a floor test. Sacking Pilot, Congress accused him of falling prey to the BJP's conspiracy to topple the Rajasthan government.

Meanwhile, in a cryptic tweet, Senior Vice President of the RPCC Vishvendra Singh Bharatpur slammed the Gehlot-led Congress government saying that they were asking them to 'express their desires', after 'cutting their tongues.' 

29 calls in two days

This comes even as senior leaders of the party have made as many as 29 calls to Deputy CM and party's state chief Sachin Pilot in the last two days, sources said. Although frantic calls have been made, sources have informed that Pilot has held his grounds. While Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra has dilled Pilot four times in the last two days, former party president Rahul Gandhi has called him once and KC Venugopal has called him three times.

Senior leader Ahmed Patel - whom Pilot met on Saturday night and submitted his grievances has made as many as fifteen calls to him. Moreover, P Chidambaram has also called Pilot six times in an attempt to resolve the ongoing Rajasthan crisis.