Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Lokesh Sharma, met with Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Sunday. This meeting took place following the release of the Congress party’s first list of 33 candidates for the upcoming Assembly election in Rajasthan on November 25. Mr. Sharma, who was recently appointed as the co-chairman of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee’s central war room, stated that discussions regarding the Assembly elections were held during the meeting. When asked about his own aspirations to contest from Bikaner West, Mr. Sharma expressed his wishes as a Congress worker. Currently, the Bikaner West Assembly seat is held by State Education Minister B.D. Kalla. Mr. Sharma emphasized that the Congress party is committed to fighting the election with unity and expressed confidence in their victory. The meeting lasted for nearly half an hour at Mr. Pilot’s residence. The longstanding feud between Mr. Gehlot and Mr. Pilot over leadership in Rajasthan has been a matter of contention since the Congress party came to power in December 2018. In 2020, Mr. Gehlot had faced a rebellion by Mr. Pilot and his MLA supporters. However, in a public meeting on October 20, both leaders stressed the importance of unity, and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reinforced the party’s unity in Rajasthan. The Congress party has announced that Mr. Gehlot will be contesting from Sardarpura and Mr. Pilot from Tonk. Notably, three leaders who were part of the rebellion against Mr. Gehlot in 2020 have also made it to the Congress party’s candidate list. In a separate case, Mr. Sharma was accused in 2020 of circulating call recordings that allegedly exposed a political conspiracy to topple the Gehlot government. The call recordings supposedly involved Union Minister and senior BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and others. Based on these recordings, a complaint was filed against Mr. Shekhawat and others. In response, Mr. Shekhawat lodged an FIR against Mr. Sharma in Delhi, accusing him of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, and unlawfully intercepting telephonic conversations. Mr. Sharma approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the FIR, and the court granted him relief by staying any coercive action against him. However, the investigation is still ongoing, with Mr. Sharma appearing before the crime branch of the Delhi Police for questioning multiple times.