Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met Governor Kalraj Mishra, straight on the back of a high court order asking the assembly speaker to maintain status quo in the disqualification proceedings against Sachin Pilot and 18 rebel Congress MLAs. Speaking to reporters, he said the state government wants an assembly session to be convened from Monday, but the governor was not giving directions because of political pressure. "We want to start the state assembly session from Monday. Everything will be clear then. I had a telephonic conversation with the governor and requested him to take a decision on this immediately. Now, we are going to meet him also. We want the session to be convened in order to discuss issues like the coronavirus and the prevailing political situation, but governor is not giving directions to call the session because of certain pressures."
Gehlot met the governor along with his MLAs in a show of strength. The Congress government wants to convene an assembly session (for a trust vote) as soon as possible, and the meeting is to ensure the same. Gehlot has been assuring the public that his government has the numbers even if the rebel Congress MLAs voted against the party; however, the court order, indefinitely extending the disqualification procedures, is expected to make the task of holding on to the flock very hard for the Congress government. Gehlot and the legislators are currently holed up in Jaipur.
In relief for Congress rebel legislators including Sachin Pilot, the Rajasthan High Court on Friday ordered 'status quo' in the disqualification order issued by Speaker C.P. Joshi. This means the disqualification procedure is essentially put on hold. Heeding a Pilot request, the court had made the Centre a party to the case, to seek its views on whether the anti-defection law holds in this case.
"All constitutional and legal options are open before the state government and will be resorted to "as and when necessary", the chief minister told news agency PTI.
"I want to repeat that we have a majority of the MLAs and even our adversaries know this. We will never shy away from resorting to democratic and constitutional processes in this regard and will take decisions at the right time," Gehlot said to a question on when he will call an assembly session. Asserting that his government has a complete majority of the Congress and its allies in the 200-member state assembly, Gehlot said, "Everyone is aware that a small section of our MLAs have been held captive in a hotel outside the state under the watch of bouncers and police of other states."
He added that he has learnt the MLAs want to "break free of their captivity" and go along with the government. "This will become evident in some time," he said when asked whether the Rajasthan Congress is in touch with MLAs in the Pilot camp.
The Rajasthan speaker had sought to disqualify the 19 dissident MLAs, who challenged it in the high court. The chief minister sounded dismissive of Pilot and purported attempts to bring him back to the Congress fold, saying the party leadership had been anguished by his anti-Congress activities.
"Only the party leadership can give this information. The leadership is bound to be anguished by ongoing anti-party activities by some of our MLAs under the leadership of Sachin Pilot. We will accept the high command's decision in this matter," Gehlot said when asked if Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi had spoken to him about Pilot's return. He also noted that any decision on Pilot would depend on the high command's approach.
