Rajasthan state's former deputy chief has announced a one-day hunger strike to raise the issue of his own party's inaction against corruption.
Sachin Pilot will hold his protest on April 11, deepening troubles between him and his Congress partymate and current state chief Ashok Gehlot.
In a press conference in the state capital Jaipur, Pilot said that the Gehlot-led government hasn't begun investigations against the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which he accuses of being corrupt.
The BJP ruled Rajasthan from 2013 to 2018 with veteran Vasundhara Raje as state chief.
"We leveled those allegations against the government of Vasundhara together. I too leveled some charges as the then-president of the state unit of the party. I do not believe in revenge politics. But we had some credibility as the opposition and that's why we came to the power," Pilot said.
Rajasthan is one of only three states in which India's main opposition party - Congress - currently rules without an alliance, the other two being Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
A bitter saga between Pilot and Gehlot has continued to hog the limelight almost entirely since it formed a government in Rajasthan. The two have remained at loggerheads over the state chief's chair that even resulted in a brief rebellion by Pilot in 2020. Pilot was later stripped of his post as deputy state chief.
The main bone of contention between Pilot and Gehlot is reportedly a promise the Congress' top leadership made to the former in 2018. According to the unwritten pact, Gehlot and Pilot would have led the government for a two and half-year tenure each, but Gehlot reportedly backpedaled on the agreement, remaining in power.
While the BJP is yet to react to Pilot's allegations of corruption in Rajasthan, the party took a jibe at Congress, saying that it should first unite its warring politicians.