Of 107 Cong MLAs, 88 turn up for key meet amid crisis
CM Gehlot walks tightrope in trying to keep his flock together as 17 Congress MLAs, including Pilot, skip meet
JAIPUR: Despite claiming majority, the Ashok Gehlot led the Congress government in Rajasthan is walking on a tight rope with only 102 legislators, including 14 independents and legislators from smaller parties, attending the meeting at Gehlot’s official residence on Monday, party leaders said.
Of the 107 Congress legislators in the 200 member Rajasthan assembly, only 105 could have attended the meeting as minister Bhanwarlal Meghwal is in the hospital and Speaker CP Joshi cannot attend such meetings to maintain neutrality of the position.
Several Congress leaders said on condition of anonymity that of the 105, 17 Congress legislators including deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot skipped the meeting.
Three independent legislators, who did not attend the meeting, later joined the other legislators at a hotel in Jaipur, taking the number of lawmakers supporting the government to 105.
“It is not over, till it is over,” said Jaipur-based political commentator Prakash Bhandari. “Many of the MLAs present in the meeting today have the reputation of jumping ship. So one should not be sure of the numbers until the last word on the crisis is written.” The Congress leaders said that of the 17 legislators who did not attend the meeting, seven are in Delhi and the other 10 are in Rajasthan. Many of them have pledged support to Pilot.
When all the action was happening at the CM’s residence in Civil Lines, some overenthusiastic supporters of the Congress pulled down posters of Sachin Pilot from the party office on Sansar Chand Road. However, the posters were later re-installed even as Congress leaders sought to pacify Pilot.
Congress leaders who conducted a headcount at the legislators’ meeting, said there were 88 Congress MLAs, including CM Ashok Gehlot. Apart from them, there were 10 Independent MLAs, two Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) legislators, and one MLA each from the CPM and RLD. The total, 102, was seven short of the 109 MLAs whose support Congress general secretary in charge of Rajasthan, Avinash Pande, claimed in press conference in the early hours of Monday. The number was also reiterated by functionaries at Gehlot’s office during the legislators meeting.
In a related development, the national leadership of BTP based in Gujarat asked its two MLAs to stay neutral in this ongoing political crisis. However, the two legislators later told reporters that they were with the Congress and would speak to party leadership about their stand.
The thing going for Gehlot, political experts said, was the fact
LEADERS WHO CONDUCTED A HEADCOUNT AT THE MEETING SAID THERE WERE 88 CONG MLAS INCLUDING THE CM
that there weren’t too many MLAs in Delhi with Pilot and all of them were first timers. But, the negative thing was that some of the heavyweights – such as former Speaker Dipendra Singh Shekhawat, former minister Hemaram Choudhary and Ramnarain Meena – were also conspicuous by their absence in the
CLP. People close to them said they were not in touch with Pilot.
Before the Rajya Sabha polls too, Gehlot housed his MLAs in a hotel in fear of poaching.