Rajasthan: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said he had spoken with PM Modi.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is meeting his cabinet a day after the Governor sent back his request for an assembly session from Friday with three conditions that include a 21-day notice and a coronavirus plan for the house.
On Monday, Governor Kalraj Mishra wrote to the Chief Minister that he was not against calling an assembly session. "The Raj Bhavan (Governor) gives the go ahead to call the Assembly session keeping in mind the suggestions made," he wrote, but listed questions that needed to be dealt with first.
He asked whether the Chief Minister wanted to bring a trust vote, because if that was the case, a 21-day notice was not needed. "Do you want to bring a confidence motion? As it is not mentioned in the proposal but in public you (Mr Gehlot) are making statements that you want to bring a Confidence Motion," Mr Mishra asked.
The Governor also said it would be difficult to call all MLAs at short notice during the pandemic. "Can you consider giving 21 days' notice to the MLAs?" - his note asked.
His third question was how social distancing will be maintained during the session.
When he rejected Mr Gehlot's first proposal on Friday, the Governor had given six reasons. He had said the proposal did not mention any agenda or date. He had also pointed out that a case was being heard in the Supreme Court.
To tackle the last point, the Rajasthan Speaker dropped a petition in the Supreme Court involving his powers to disqualify rebel MLAs.
Speaker CP Joshi had petitioned the Supreme Court last week to stop the High Court from deciding on a petition by Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress rebels challenging disqualification notices sent by him. The Supreme Court refused to intervene, saying the "voice of dissent cannot be suppressed in a democracy". The Speaker had also challenged being told by the High Court to hold off on any action against the rebels until its verdict.
When the High Court took up the case the next day, it accepted a last-minute plea by team Pilot to include the centre in its petition and asked the Speaker again not to take any action for now.
The Chief Minister has been pressing for an assembly session since last week and protested for five hours at the Governor's residence last Friday.
Chief Minister Gehlot, facing a rebellion by his sacked deputy Sachin Pilot, believes he has the numbers to win a floor test in the assembly. The Chief Minister claims the support of 102 MLAs, just one past the majority mark of 101 in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly. "Three rebel MLAs are likely to come back in the next two days," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala claimed.
What could endanger the Gehlot government's thin lead is the status of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs who merged their party with the Congress last year. The BSP yesterday petitioned the court against the merger. It also asked to be made a party to a petition by a BJP MLA.
