Sachin Pilot in Pushkar on Sunday. Picture by Prem Singh

Pushkar (Rajasthan), June 25: An internal power struggle between Gujjar leaders for the reins of the agitation for reservation could give the Vasundhara Raje Scindia-led Rajasthan government much needed manoeuvring space.

Members of the community from across the country yesterday met in a show of unity here, issuing a warning to the Rajasthan government and the central BJP leadership.

But behind the display of unity are fast widening cracks.

The architect of the agitation for reservation, ‘Colonel’ Kirori Lal Baisna, clearly enjoys maximum popular support, but his leadership is not acceptable to other “leaders”.

At 29, Dausa MP Sachin Pilot is a vibrant young parliamentarian, but his lack of association with the cause of reservation leaves him behind Baisna in the popularity ratings, despite his family name.

Pilot — his father Rajesh was six-time MP and was revered by the Gujjar community to which the family belongs — faced jeers yesterday from Baisna’s supporters when he plonked himself on a chair while the older man sat on the ground.

“Agar kisi ko baithna chahiye kursi par to woh hai Colonel saab (If there is anyone who deserves to sit on that chair, it’s the Colonel),” a Gujjar leader from Punjab said during his speech.

Pilot smiled, trying to shrug off the embarrassment, but the remark had clearly hurt his loyalists. “Imagine what Pilot saab must be thinking. He isn’t used to playing second fiddle to anyone. He has come here for the cause, not to be ridiculed,” whispered Rajesh Singh, one of his secretaries.

Pilot himself, speaking later to The Telegraph, tried to play down the differences but hinted the barbs had hurt.

“This is an apolitical platform that we are working from. We are Gujjars here first. We need to stop attacking each other,” he said.

Pilot has made clear his opposition to the “violent means” employed by the Colonel’s “troops” during the May 29-June 4 agitation that followed police firing on Gujjars seeking Scheduled Tribe status in the state. “The violence won’t get us anywhere in the future either,” he said.

A senior source in the Raje government said Jaipur’s eyes were “very much on” the internal tussle within the Gujjar community. “It’s obviously good for us if they keep fighting,” he said.