Gehlot shifts MLAs to Jaisalmer to guard them ahead of session
■ Chief whip moves SC ■ Cops fail to meet rebels at Haryana hotels
Jaisalmer/Jaipur, July 31: Congress MLAs loyal to chief minister Ashok Gehlot shifted from a Jaipur resort to Jaisalmer on Friday, prepared to spend at least the next fortnight holed up in a hotel there.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot boarded one of the five chartered flights to the city, 550 kms away from the state capital by road. But he indicated he will be back.
He told reporters at the airport there will be no compromise with the government’s work as he and the ministers will remain in Jaipur. In Delhi, the Congress approached the Supreme Court against the Rajasthan high court order restraining the assembly Speaker from acting on the disqualification notices issued to Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs.
AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also travelled to Jaisalmer with the MLAs. The party claimed about 100 people including MLAs from the Congress, allies and independents boarded the flights. The MLAs had remained confined to Fairmont hotel on the Delhi-Jaipur highway since July 13, as the infighting between the Gehlot and the Sachin Pilot factions in the Congress escalated.
The Gehlot camp is keeping the MLAs together for a possible vote of confidence it has indicated it will seek when the state assembly meets from August 14. Mr Gehlot repeated his allegation that there was a sharp increase in the money being offered to the MLAs for switching sides after the announcement Wednesday of the Assembly session.
According to some reports, the 19 dissident MLAs are also camping together in hotels in Gurgaon near Delhi.
On Friday, a team from the Anti Corruption Bureau of the Rajasthan police was not allowed to enter three hotels where they wanted serve notices to two MLAs, an official said. The ACB has issued notices to MLAs Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh, asking them to join the investigations into the alleged conspiracy to topple the Gehlot government.