Let’s have 5 Deputy CMs if it improves law & order: Pilot

New Delhi: Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot has said the state could have four more deputy chief ministers if it would ‘improve’ the law and order.

“I don’t know about any such thing. If it helps improve law and order and in waiving farmers’ loans, then have five deputy chief ministers,” Pilot told ET when asked about the possibility of the state getting a second deputy CM.

There have been reports that Gehlot was willing to appoint one more deputy chief minister, although he has not said anything on the matter. A leader close to Gehlot, however, told ET this was a possibility. “There is no discussion yet, but in politics there is always a possibility. In the past too, we have had two deputy chief ministers,” the leader said. In 2003, Gehlot had Banwari Lal Bairwa and Kamla Beniwal as deputy CMs.


Pilot, who also is the state Congress chief, has questio ned the government on the ‘deteriorating’ law and order twice before, in an apparent criticism of chief minister Ashok Gehlot who holds the home portfolio. The two leaders have been at loggerheads since the formation of the new government. Recently, some leaders had raised a question on Pilot holding two posts and he strongly reacted to it. Gehlot’s hands were strengthened recently after six BSP MLAs joined the
Congress to take the party figure to 106. Sources indicated that Gehlot had kept Pilot out of loop, though the latter denied it.