Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot have been engaged in a power tussle since 2018. (FILE)
Seeking to resolve the infighting in Rajasthan Congress, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday met party chief Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi on Monday in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and party leader from Rajasthan Jitendra Singh were also present at the meeting.
Congress president Kharge is also scheduled to meet Sachin Pilot later in the day, sources said.
About half an hour after the meeting between Mr Kharge, Mr Gandhi and Mr Gehlot, AICC in-charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Randhawa joined them for discussions.
Mr Kharge and Mr Gandhi are holding parleys with leaders of poll-bound states in order to evolve the party strategy for the assembly elections.
The Congress leadership has already held discussions with top leaders from Madhya Pradesh in the morning, after which Gandhi said the party would win 150 seats in the state.
Earlier, Mr Gehlot said the party high command is strong and it will never offer any position to any leader or worker to pacify him.
The meeting comes close on the heels of Mr Pilot's "ultimatum" that if three demands he made from the state government were not met by the end of this month, he would launch a state-wide agitation. Pilot has asked for a high-level inquiry into the alleged scams that took place during the tenure of the former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje government, as one of his demands.
Speaking to reporters earlier, Mr Gehlot said there is no such tradition in the party to offer posts to any leader in order to pacify him.
"As far as I know, there is no such tradition in the Congress where any leader demands something and the party high command offers to give that position. We have not heard of such a formula ever," he said when asked about reports of a formula being worked out to rope in Mr Pilot.
Rubbishing such reports, he said it is only the creation of the media and some leaders may be getting such stories planted.
"Never has such a thing happened in the Congress so far and neither will it happen in the future. The Congress party and the high command are very strong and no leader or worker has the courage to demand any position. It does not happen like that," the Chief Minister asserted.
Mr Gehlot and Mr Pilot have been engaged in a power tussle since the Congress formed government in the state in 2018. In 2020, Pilot led a failed revolt against the Gehlot government after which he was removed from the posts of party's state unit president and deputy Chief Minister.
Mr Pilot had last month defied a warning from the party and went ahead with a day-long fast targeting Gehlot over his "inaction" on alleged corruption during the previous Raje government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)