Congress shifts Raj MLAs to Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer/Jaipur, July 31: Fearing “horse-trading” ahead of the Assembly session, the Rajasthan Congress on Friday shifted the party MLAs to Jaisalmer from Jaipur where they had been staying at a hotel for over a fortnight.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other senior party leaders, including AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, also moved to Jaisalmer along with the MLAs in five chartered flights.

Gehlot alleged that the MLAs, their family members and acquaintances were getting threat calls and pressure was being build on them after the announcement of the Assembly session from August 14.

He said the rate for horse-trading has increased after the governor announced the Assembly session date.

Gehlot said his party has undertaken a campaign to save the democracy in the country.

Targeting home minister Amit Shah, the Chief Minister said he took the BJP leader’s name as he comes (on the forefront) “where the government is toppled”.

What has happened to you...you day and night think how to topple elected governments. How the democracy in the country will be saved if elected governments are toppled, he asked.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi on Friday moved the Supreme Court against the High Court order asking the speaker to defer disqualification proceeding against sacked deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs, saying they indulged in the grossest form of defection by making grave and sinister attempts to topple the Ashok Gehlot government.

The chief whip, who moved the top court two days after the assembly speaker C.P. Joshi filed the appeal against the July 24 Rajasthan High Court order, was very critical of the judicial intervention into the disqualification proceedings and said the order was exfacie unconstitutional.