Rajasthan govt sticks to July 31 as Assembly session date, informs governor

Sticking to its guns, the Rajasthan government told Governor Kalraj Mishra it wanted the legislative Assembly to meet on July 31 (which is Eid, a national holiday) and promised to meet all other conditions laid out by the governor in relation to Covid-19.

Chief Minister (CM) Ashok Gehlot called a meeting of his Cabinet and discussed the matter internally before drafting a reply to the governor.

“The Cabinet wants the Assembly session from July 31. The proposal is being sent to the governor,” Transport Minister Pratap Singh told reporters in Jaipur after the meeting.

“We have formulated replies to the governor’s concerns. It is our right to call the Assembly. How the session will be held is the Speaker’s prerogative. We want the session on Friday,” Rajasthan Revenue Minister Harish Chaudhary told television channels.

“The governor is asking certain questions. We have replied to those. What are the extraordinary circumstances? Other Assembly sessions are being held in the country. The Cabinet proposal will be sent to the governor probably on Wednesday,” said Chaudhary.

It is not clear what Gehlot camp’s Plan B is if the governor does not accede to its request.

What could endanger the Gehlot government’s thin lead is the status of six Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP’s) Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) who merged their party with the Congress last year. The BSP on Monday petitioned the court against the merger. It also asked to be made party to a petition by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA. The high court (HC) dismissed the petition, but now the matter has been appealed.

The longer it takes for the Assembly to be convened, the more perilous will be Gehlot’s position among his MLAs. Although the Opposition BJP has an almost impossible task of corralling together nearly 20 Congress MLAs in order to make up the numbers to help it topple the Gehlot government, this can be done — given time.

On Tuesday, a leader in the Sachin Pilot camp, Hemaram Choudhary issued a one-minute video in which he said the Pilot camp was in touch with 15 other Congress MLAs, and they would support Pilot at the right time. This was a riposté to an earlier claim by Randeep Surjewala that three MLAs from the Pilot group would return to Gehlot and vote in his favour once they were allowed out of the captivity they were placed in. The rebels are planning their moves with all contingencies in mind.

On Monday, Mishra wrote to Gehlot 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 CM 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? Since it is not mentioned in the proposal but in public, you (Gehlot) are making statements that you want to bring a confidence motion,” said Mishra.

The governor also said it would be difficult to call all MLAs at a moment’s notice during the pandemic. “Can you consider giving 21 days’ notice to the MLAs?” his note asked. His third question was how social distancing would be maintained during the session.

When he rejected 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 (SC).

To tackle the last point, the Rajasthan Speaker dropped a petition in the SC involving his powers to disqualify rebel MLAs.

Speaker C P Joshi had petitioned the SC last week to stop the HC from deciding on a petition by Pilot and 18 other Congress rebels challenging the disqualification notices sent by him. The SC refused to intervene, saying the “voice of dissent cannot be suppressed in a democracy”. The Speaker had also challenged being told by the HC to hold off on any action against the rebels until its verdict.

When the HC took up the case the following 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.

Raj Bhavan is expected to respond late on Tuesday or on Wednesday.