Sachin Pilot reveals he pushed for Rajasthan CM's son Vaibhav Gehlot's 2019 Cong ticket

Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Wednesday revealed that Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot's son was given a 2019 Lok Sabha election ticket on his advice. Speaking to the reporters, Pilot, however, refused to speak about the recent troubles of Vaibhav Gehlot. The CM's son was recently booked with 13 others for allegedly defrauding a Nashik-based businessman, Sushil Patil and allegedly duping him Rs 6.80 crore. 

'I strongly vouched for Vaibhav,' says Pilot

Sachin Pilot said that the party high command was against giving a ticket to Vaibhav Gehlot but he felt the CM's son deserved a ticket since the former had worked with Vaibhav when he was the Rajasthan Congress chief. Pilot said, "Vaibhav Gehlot wanted to contest the elections from Jodhpur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. At the time, the Congress leadership was reluctant to give Vaibhav a ticket but I advised both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi that he should be given a chance since he has worked with me".

Pilot even claimed that he convinced the Congress high command by saying that Ashok Gehlot, who was the newly-appointed CM, would lose confidence if his son was denied a ticket. "He contested the elections and we lost by a huge margin. Kamal Nath Ji's son was also given a ticket from Madhya Pradesh but he managed to win," Pilot added. 

When asked about the fraud allegations leveled against Vaibhav Gehlot, Pilot refused to comment and said that the former has already spoken for himself.

Vaibhav Gehlot rubbishes duping allegations

Vaibhav Gehlot rubbished the allegations levelled against him and said that the FIR was filed against him based on a manipulated story. The current Chairman of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), Vaibhav Gehlot had stated in a tweet that he has nothing to do with the incident adding that more such allegations would surface before the state assembly elections which are still over a year and a half away. However, in a recent turn of events, the complainant gave a complementary statement as he now wants to withdraw Vaibhav Gehlot's name from the FIR. The complainant said that he named the CM's son due to a misunderstanding caused by Sachin Valera, a Gujarat-based Congress worker and the prime accused in the case.

Image: Twitter/@VaibhavGehlot_80/Facebook/@SachinPilot