CM Ashok Gehlot walks out of Raj Bhavan with his supporters in Jaipur Friday.
The Rajasthan BJP on Friday slammed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over the sit-in protest by Congress and Independent MLAs supporting his government inside the Governor’s house and also on the CM’s statement that it won’t be his responsibility if people ‘gherao’ the Raj Bhavan.
On Friday morning, Gehlot’s stable of supporting legislators staged a sit-in protest at the residence of Governor Kalraj Mishra, demanding that he convene an Assembly session immediately.
“A drama of sit-in is going on inside the Raj Bhavan. Can he (Gehlot) force the Governor? Under the Constitution, under the leadership of a leader of a political party, its MLAs, can they force the Honourable Governor, who is the highest Constitutional body of any state?” Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia told reporters in Jaipur on Friday.
Poonia also criticised Gehlot for saying the public could gherao the Raj Bhavan. “After such language, the Home Minister and the Chief Minister himself, who has the responsibility of managing law and order in the state, is proved to be a criminal by violating several provisions of the IPC and disaster management rules,” said Poonia.
The Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said that by demonstrating inside the Governor’s house, all “limits of morality” have been crossed.
“I had said the very first day that whether the government is in minority or majority, it can be decided only on the floor of the House (State Assembly). If this would have been clear back then, things would have reached a decisive level now. But at that time, they took judicial avenues because they didn’t have a majority. They wanted time to bring people to the hotel. And now, when because of the court they aren’t seeing any way out, they have crossed all limits of morality,” said Kataria.
Condemning the slogans raised by the legislators inside the Governor’s residence, “The way, based on your numbers, you went inside the Raj Bhavan and staged a dharna, I feel that there couldn’t be any worse deed than this that a Chief Minister can do,” added Kataria,
Speaking on Gehlot’s statement about gherao, Kataria appealed to the Central government to deploy the CRPF to “protect the sanctity of the Constitutional post” and not to depend on the Rajasthan police. He called for the ouster of the protesting MLAs from the Governor’s House.
“There is a constitutional way. The Cabinet has conveyed its message but now the decision has to be taken by him (Governor). But this idea of enabling the decision by sitting on his chest is extremely condemnable,” said Kataria.