‘Raj Cong MLAs to camp together till House meets’
Legislators will stay united, says chief whip
Jaipur, July 30: Congress MLAs huddled in a hotel here for the last fortnight will continue to camp together till the Rajasthan Assembly meets on August 14, a party leader said Thursday.
This was discussed at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting held at the Fairmont hotel on the outskirts of the city, where MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot are staying since the July 13.
“All legislators will remain united and stay together till August 14,” Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi said after the CLP meeting chaired by Gehlot.
After rebuffing a Cabinet proposal three times, Governor Kalraj Mishra on Wednesday agreed to convene a session of the Vidhan Sabha on August 14.
Mr Gehlot and his now sacked deputy Sachin Pilot are locked in a tussle for power in the state.
Altogether, there are 107 Congress MLAs in the 200member assembly, but Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs have openly defied a party whip.
At one point, Pilot claimed that 30 Congress MLAs were with him. But the Gehlot camp claims that with the support of independents and allies it has the majority support
in the House. The Congress numbers include six BSP MLAs who merged as a group with the ruling party after the 2018 Assembly polls.
The merger is now being challenged in the high court by the BSP and a
BJP MLA. The BJP has 72 MLAs in the House.
While saying that the loyalist MLAs will stay together till the session begins, Mahesh Joshi did not clarify whether they will continue at the same hotel.