Tonk, Rajasthan: Amid speculations of rift and disquiet within ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister, Sachin Pilot, on Saturday said his party believes in collective leadership and individual responsibilities in Rajasthan will be decided upon and allocated once the party returns to power.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday, Pilot said, "We respect each other and believe in collective leadership. We will fight the polls united and after securing a majority, our MLAs and the party will decide who to delegate responsibilities to. If anyone has any problem with this system, he should take it up with the leadership and sort things out. This has always been the tradition, policy, and history of our party," Pilot said.
"Our mindset and objective is to fight the elections unitedly and win a majority mandate. Should the people bless us back to power, we will sit across the table and decide who should do what. The same procedure was followed in 2018 and will be repeated this year as well. However, our first priority is to win a majority," the senior Congress leader added.
On India's chances in the ongoing cricket World Cup final between hosts India and Australia, which is being staged at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the Congress leader exuded confidence in the hosts prevailing over the five-time champions.
"India will win the World Cup because our performance till now has been better than any other opponent. Similarly, here in Tonk, I feel that the people will help us win back Rajasthan," Pilot added.
The Congress has fielded Sachin Pilot from the Tonk Assembly constituency of Rajasthan. He is the incumbent MLA from the same constituency. The BJP has fielded Ajit Singh Mehta, a former MLA from the constituency, against him.
Rajasthan will go to polls in a single phase on November 25 and the votes will be counted on December 3.
In the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP won 73 seats in the 200-member House. Gehlot eventually took the oath as CM with the support of BSP MLAs and independent legislators.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)