JAIPUR, India – As the formidable Indian National Congress party began to crumble in recent years, Sachin Pilot, a young, well-connected politician, stepped forward to help his bloc overcome crisis after crisis.
Mr. Pilot’s parents were staunch supporters of Congress and held elite positions in government. It is close to members of the Gandhi family, who have controlled the party for decades, dominating India’s electorate until Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office six years ago on a wave of Hindu nationalism.
Pilot, who represented Congress as deputy chief minister in the northern state of Rajasthan, was believed by many to have the perfect resume to lead the party to a renaissance.
Instead, India’s political establishment has been rocked by accusations this month that Pilot was secretly working on behalf of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, possibly in an effort to depose a prime minister with whom he had fought. Pilot has denied those allegations.
Supporters of Congress fear the scandal is yet another blow to the survival of the party, which led the country to independence more than 70 years ago, but which has been cracking internally under the weight of massive Bharatiya Janata Party victories led by Modi. Party officials in Rajasthan immediately asked dozens of congressional politicians to move to a hotel in a desperate effort to prevent them from deserting.
As the country’s political discourse has been dominated by nationalism and Hindu-centered policies, many are also concerned that the weakness of Congress, which has traditionally defended minorities, damages India’s democracy as a whole.
The scandal erupted in recent days when party officials accused Mr. Pilot of offering multi-million dollar bribes to other congressional leaders and urged them to defect to the Bharatiya Janata Party over a period of several months.
The consequences were swift and unforgiving. The party leadership removed Mr. Pilot from office and accused 18 other politicians of colluding with him. Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister in Rajasthan, called his deputy a “worthless person” and released audio tapes that he said involved Mr. Pilot in a conspiracy to buy officials “like goats in a market.”
“Speaking good English, giving good dates and being handsome is not everything,” Gehlot told reporters.
Pilot, who did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Times, maintained his innocence in an interview with India Today, insisting that he had no intention of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. He accused Mr. Gehlot of trying to “humiliate me” and block him from a bigger role in the Congress party.
It was one of the most public expressions of resentment so far in Congress that the party is not making room for a younger group of leaders to emerge. The result is that Mr. Modi’s party is stronger than ever.
Gilles Verniers, an assistant professor of political science at Ashoka University, said Congress has given incentives to officials to join the party, prompting some to “seek greener pastures.” In recent years, dozens of top congressional leaders have left the party, fed up with a lack of visionary leadership.
Mr. Modi’s BJP has taken advantage of the turmoil, constantly weakening Congress in the few states it still controls. In March, Jyotiraditya Scindia, another congressional star who was close to the Gandhis and hailed from a long line of princes, defected to the BJP, causing Congress to lose its fragile control over the state government.
In an interview, Satish Poonia, president of the BJP in Rajasthan, said that “all the accusations against us are false.” Instead, he described the conflict as a generational rift between Mr. Pilot and older congressional leaders like Mr. Gehlot, 69, an opinion also shared by many within Congress.
India has a long history of power grabbing and high-level defections, and local media have released reports of unidentified BJP officials in Rajasthan describing a failed political coup attempt, with discontent Pilot at the center .
Rajasthan is a large, politically competitive state, and home to some of India’s vital cultural and heritage sites. Congress controls 107 seats in the state legislature, barely enough to form a majority government. Only a few crossovers would shift the balance of power to the BJP
The leaders of the Congress in Rajasthan are deeply disturbed. Last week, Mr. Gehlot’s government transferred more than 100 elected officials to the Fairmont Hotel, a five-star resort in the city of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, in hopes of preventing them from leaving the BJP. The fear was that if lawmakers remained at home, it would be easier to bribe or incite them to defect.
On a recent day this week, riot buses and camouflage-clad police officers blocked the entrance to the complex. Inside, politicians attended yoga classes and watched Bollywood movies in a marble-floored lobby.
Rafeek Khan, a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly who is among those staying at the hotel, said he had no idea when they would be allowed to leave.
“The BJP is playing with democracy,” he said. “They think you can buy one if you offer enough money. That is the message that the BJP is sending to the electorate. “
In the coming days, the Rajasthan legislature is expected to decide whether Pilot and the other 18 rebel officials will lose their seats, making it much more difficult to form a new government under the BJP.
The decline of Congress accelerated last year, when Rahul Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, resigned as president after a humiliating defeat in the general election against Modi.
Many Indians see the Congress party as a protector of the nation’s foundational secular values, but overly committed to the gandhis, who are often perceived as a symbol of India’s Anglican upper class. Mr. Gandhi, his mother, Sonia, who assumed the role of interim president, and his sister, Priyanka, still draw the attention of the party.
Modi continually criticizes Congress for being a family dynasty, and his party’s embrace of a muscular Hindu nationalism that emphasizes India’s Hindu heritage has continued well with voters.
Rasheed Kidwai, a former journalist who wrote a book about Sonia Gandhi, said that Congress simply could not compete. “They are going through the movements,” he said. “They are very demoralized. They have no hope. “
Analysts say problems have been brewing for Congress in Rajasthan since 2018, when the party won a victory over the BJP in the state elections and regained control of the state government after five years in opposition.
In his interview with India Today, Pilot said he stepped up as prime minister, citing his role to help secure that victory. But he finally gave in to a deal to take second place behind Mr. Gehlot with the impression that he would soon be elevated.
Mr. Pilot, whose name comes from the fact that his father was a highly decorated fighter pilot, apparently felt estranged by Mr. Gehlot, and bitterness grew among the men.
“This was a poorly managed show and one more state could slip out of the hands of Congress,” said Neerja Chowdhury, a political analyst in New Delhi. “It is a failure of the national leadership.”
Hari Kumar and Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reports from New Delhi.
