Rajasthan Crisis: The open revolt of Sachin Pilot has pushed the state government to the brink. (File)
Jaipur / New Delhi:
In a crucial day in court for the Rajasthan congressional crisis, the Supreme Court will resume a petition that raises questions about the president’s constitutional powers to initiate disqualification proceedings against rebel MPs for failing to attend party meetings. President CP Joshi last week asked the Supreme Court to prevent the High Court from ruling on a petition by Sachin Pilot and 18 other congressional rebels challenging the disqualification notices. A section of Congress is in favor of dropping the case and seeking a political solution, sources say. Even before any court ruling on the status of the rebels contesting his reign, Rajasthan’s chief minister, Ashok Gehlot, called for an assembly from July 31 (Friday).
Here are 10 developments on Rajasthan’s political crisis:
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The chief minister, who first wrote to Governor Kalraj Mishra asking for an assembly session from today and protested for five hours at his residence, the Raj Nivas, to pressure it, has submitted a new proposal on Sunday and put the coronavirus and the economy on the special session’s agenda.
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The governor, while asking for a new amended proposal after the chief minister’s dramatic demonstration on Friday, had listed six reasons for not accepting the previous one. Among them was the fact that the courts are still ruling on the rebels’ petition against the disqualification notices.
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A section of Congress believes the Supreme Court case should be withdrawn and the crisis should be dealt with politically, sources told GalacticGaming. The final decision was left to the party’s high command, sources said.
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Last Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to prevent the High Court from ruling on the rebels’ petition – as requested by the President – saying that “the voice of dissent cannot be suppressed in a democracy”. The President had also disputed that the High Court had told him to suspend all action against the rebels.
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A day later, the High Court extended that protection to rebels and postponed its verdict after accepting Team Pilot’s eleventh hour request to add the center to the case so it could determine whether the anti- defection applies to them.
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Chief Minister Gehlot thinks the numbers are on his side and is keen to do a ground test in the assembly. He also insists that some congressmen who support him are being held hostage in the two Haryana complexes in Gurugram, where the Pilot team has been stationed since they launched a revolt two weeks ago.
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Mr Gehlot believes that if the rebels are forced to come to Jaipur for the Assembly session, their numbers will increase further.
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The chief minister claims the support of 102 deputies, just one after the majority of 101 in the Rajasthan assembly, made up of 200 members. Its numbers could drop due to a decision by the Bahujan Samaj (BSP) party of Uttar Pradesh politician Mayawati. The BSP whipped its six MPs to vote against Congress in a ground test.
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The six BSP deputies joined Congress last year. But the BSP said yesterday they had received notifications that they could not merge their party with Congress into one state because it has a national presence.
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Sachin Pilot has broken ranks with Congress after months of insurmountable differences with his former boss Ashok Gehlot. The last straw for Mr. Pilot came in the form of a subpoena to answer questions in an investigation into alleged bribery attempts by Congressmen to turn against the government in which he was vice -Chief Minister. If Team Pilot wins their case, the rebels can vote in the assembly and endanger the Congressional government. If they vote against their party, Congress, they can be disqualified but their votes will count.
