Rajasthan political crisis live updates: Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to brief media today

Raje’s silence on Rajasthan crisis sets tongues wagging

Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has remained conspicuously silent on the political crisis in the state even as her BJP colleagues have criticised the Ashok Gehlot government for coralling ministers and MLAs. Raje, however, has been active on social media on other issues. Nagaur MP and BJP ally Hanuman Beniwal on Thursday added to the mystery over her silence by claiming that Raje was trying to save the “minority” government. “...She has made calls to several Congress MLAs,” Beniwal tweeted. The Jat leader has an uneasy equation with Raje. A sense of unease is simmering as BJP members wait for the party to firm up its stance on floor test. There were reports that Raje would be in Jaipur on Wednesday but that did not happen amid speculations that the BJP strategy is being framed in Delhi.

The MLAs’ petition argues that the Speaker should have given them at least a week’s time to respond to the allegations against them instead of just two days (till 3pm on July 17). “Grave mischief is sought to be achieved by the prejudicial manner in which the CLP is seeking to impose sanctions upon the MLAs on sheer presumptuous basis, as the complaint (by Congress chief whip) is dated July 14 and the showcause notice is issued (by the speaker) on the same day,” the petition states.

The original petition had only challenged the notices issued by Speaker CP Joshi on the basis of a complaint filed by Congress against Pilot and his loyalists, accusing them of conspiring with BJP to topple the Ashok Gehlot government. The division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta will take up the amended joint petition on Friday.

Pilot's lawyers — Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi and Devadutt Kamat — had sought time to amend the petition during the first hearing, saying the petitioners wanted to incorporate elements challenging the constitutional validity of portions of the Rajasthan Assembly Member (Disqualification on the grounds of changing party) Rules, 1989. The plea was accepted despite opposition from Congress counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi and advocate general MS Singhvi, representing the Speaker.

Two versions of the petition were heard during the day, first at 3pm and again at 5pm, before the single-judge bench of Justice Satish Kumar Sharma acceded to a plea to list the matter before a division bench.

Challenging Congress’s reliance on the (anti-defection) law to stem dissent, the petition argues that it could potentially have dangerous consequences such as an elected representative being deprived of assembly membership at the “whims and fancies of the leader of the party”.

Sacked Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot and his band of 18 Congress MLAs on Thursday filed a petition in the high court, challenging the constitutional validity of “some provisions” in the legislature rules invoked by the Speaker to issue them disqualification notices on grounds of defying the party whip and staying away from CLP meetings on consecutive days.

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to brief media today morning at Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur where Congress party MLAs are lodged: ANI