Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot met on Thursday for the the first time after the latter's reconciliation with the Congress leadership.
The Rajasthan CM had called a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party at his residence on Thursday at 5 pm, a day before the state assembly session is scheduled to begin. The assembly session in the state will begin on Friday.
Party leaders K C Venugopal, Avinash Pande, Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken and Govind Singh Dotasra were also there at the meeting, posing together for the cameras at Gehlot's official residence.
Pilot and Gehlot shook hands in a moment marking the return of the sacked deputy chief minister and 18 other dissident MLAs to the party-fold, after the intervention earlier this week by the top Congress leadership in Delhi.
Their meeting was followed by the Congress Legislature Party meeting, ahead of Friday's assembly session.
The opposition BJP has already announced that it will seek a no-confidence motion against the Gehlot government during the session.
The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member assembly, and the BJP 72.
Cong revokes suspension of two Pilot camp MLAs
The Congress on Thursday revoked the suspension of Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh, two MLAs who had rebelled against the Ashok Gehlot government.
They were suspended from the party's primary membership last month over their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to topple the Congress government in the state.
The decision to revoke the suspension of the two MLAs follows a patch-up between the Ashok Gehlot and his sacked deputy Sachin Pilot after the intervention of the party's top leadership in Delhi.
After a consultative discussion, the suspension of @INCRajasthan MLA Sh. Bhanwarlal Sharma Ji and Sh. @vishvendrabtp ji is hereby revoked, AICC general secretary Avinash Pande tweeted.
Eighteen MLAs had backed Pilot in the rebellion, demanding a change of leadership in Rajasthan.
