Amid the ongoing power tussle in the ruling Congress in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met Governor Kalraj Mishra on Saturday evening. The meeting came hours after two MLAs of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) extended their support to the state government.
The meeting lasted for about 45 minutes. A Raj Bhavan spokesperson said it was a courtesy meeting during which the chief minister briefed the governor about the efforts being taken to protect the state from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Congress government in the state has been embroiled in a deep political crisis ever since senior leader Sachin Pilot declared an open revolt against Gehlot. Pilot was later sacked as the deputy chief minister and the president of the state unit of the party.
In the house of 200, Congress has 107 MLAs, including 19 of those who have been issued notices of disqualification by the assembly speaker on a complaint by chief whip Mahesh Joshi. The party claims that the Gehlot government has 109 MLAs, including Congress, independents and other supporting party legislators, in its support to run the government.
On Saturday, BTP legislators Rajkumar Roat and Ramprasad asserted that their party's president and other leaders have agreed on extending support to the Gehlot government on the condition that demands related to development of the state are fulfilled.
The party had on Monday issued a whip asking Roat and Ramprasad to be neutral and neither support the Congress nor the BJP. It had also told them to neither support Chief Minister Gehlot nor Sachin Pilot in case of a floor test in the assembly.
The Congress shifted its MLAs to a hotel on the Delhi highway on Monday, soon after the legislative party meeting where the party lawmakers expressed support for Gehlot.
