Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with Sachin Pilot (Express Photo by Rohit Jain Paras)
The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday accepted the amended plea filed by Sachin Pilot camp challenging the disqualification of MLAs by Rajasthan speaker. It will now be heard by two-judge bench on Friday at 1 PM.
Earlier today, Pilot sought some time to amend their plea and the court had deferred the hearing. Counsel Harish Salve had said that dissident MLAs want to challenge anti-defection law enshrined in Tenth Schedule of Constitution. The 19 MLAs were sent notices Tuesday by the Speaker after the Congress complained that the MLAs had defied a party whip to attend two Congress Legislature Party meetings
After Ashok Gehlot’s stinging remarks on Sachin Pilot, sources said, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who is part of the central team sent by the Congress to Jaipur to handle the crisis, had a meeting with the chief minister. It was conveyed to him that Rahul Gandhi wants to keep the doors open for Pilot. Sources said Gehlot told Surjewala he was not against that but Pilot would have to “leave the BJP camp”. Sources in Delhi said both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are keen to accommodate Pilot, and that Ahmed Patel was talking to him. Pilot, who has been removed as deputy CM and state party president, said he is not joining the BJP.
Even as the political crisis in the state deepens, the Rajasthan BJP unit is in “wait and watch” mode. Party leaders maintained that the BJP, as the main Opposition in Rajasthan, will take “every action to see that the Gehlot government fails to prove (its) majority” in the Assembly.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot with Sachin Pilot (File)
The Rajasthan High Court will hear the amended plea filed by Sachin Pilot camp challenging the disqualification of MLAs by Rajasthan speaker on Friday at 1 PM.
BJP leader Hanuman Beniwal in a tweet said that Former Mahdhya Pradesh Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is in support of Askhok Gehlot and that she has been asking the people of Rajasthan to support Gehlot.
Two-judge bench of Rajasthan High Court will later today hear the amended petition filed by dissident Sachin Pilot camp. Sachin Pilot had earlier today sought time to amend the petition challenging disqualification of 18 Congress MLAs by the Rajasthan speaker. Counsel Harish Salve had said that thathe petitioners will challenge anti-defection law enshrined in Tenth Schedule of Constitution.
The hearing on plea challenging the disqualification of MLAs by the Rajasthan speaker resumes. The plea was filed by Sachil Pilot camp. He is being representated by senior advocate Harish Salve
In a twisht, the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) who were in support of Gehlot earlier have now placed a list of five demands, mainly concerning tribal development. The party president has asked the MLAs to not support either Gehlot, Pilot, or BJP, as of now.
The Rajasthan High court has granted time to Pilot camp to file fresh petition and said the matter will be heard by Division Bench. Harish Salve, representing Pilot said that that the petitioners will challenge anti-defection law enshrined in Tenth Schedule of Constitution.
Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs who have approached the Rajasthan High Court over disqualification notice from Assembly Speaker sought time to amend its petition.
Harish Salve representing team Pilot says notice by the speaker for disqualification of Pilot and 18 other MLAs "unconstitutional"
Sachin Pilot and camp's case is in court. Hearing begins
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress’ Rajya Sabha member, will appear on behalf of the Speaker, while the Pilot camp will be represented by former Solicitor General Harish Salve and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, news agency ANI reported
Prithviraj Meena, an MLA supporting Sachin Pilot, has moved Rajasthan High Court challenging state Assembly Speaker's disqualification notice to them. The matter will be heard at 3 pm today. Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi to represent them.
Sources in the Congress also claimed that the rebellion led by Sachin Pilot had been brewing for long and that the notice issued to him by the Special Operations Group of the Rajasthan Police — in a probe into an alleged bid to topple the state government — may have forced him to play his hand immediately, without waiting for the required numbers to topple the government.
Allegations of the BJP being involved in an alleged conspiracy to topple the government had come up during the Rajya Sabha elections last month, when Gehlot had moved swiftly to take party MLAs to a resort ahead of voting. After the Congress went on to comfortably win the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state, Gehlot was accused by many of crying wolf, including Pilot, who said, “I had said it before the elections, which turned out to be right. It means that whatever was said, be it by anyone, was all baseless.”
The fight for the embattled Ashok Gehlot government may not be over still, with Union minister and senior BJP leader from the state Gajendra Singh Shekhawat indicating that it has “not concluded yet”. While many in the BJP had felt that Pilot would be an asset to the party if he leaves the Congress with a bunch of legislators, and that the BJP could then initiate action to topple the Gehlot government, the former PCC chief’s stand seems to have disappointed them.
According to BJP leaders, the party has discussed several plans in case Pilot and Rajasthan Congress MLAs backing him do not vote for the Gehlot government. “But we need to get a final picture on what Pilot wants, and what (kind of support) he has,” a party leader said. “We are waiting and watching, but the BJP will help those who are leaving the Congress camp,” a senior BJP leader said. “As an opposition party, we will have to see that the Ashok Gehlot government is defeated (in a floor test).”
A day after Sachin Pilot ruled out joining BJP and accused "few Rajasthan leaders" of maligning his image by spreading the rumour, Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Thursday hit out at him saying it seems that the MLAs in Haryana's Manesar are on vacation and asked what about 'ghar wapsi' (coming back). “False rumours spread to malign. Pilot: “I am not joining BJP”. I guess then legislators at a hotel in Manesar is merely a vacation in Haryana’s comfort zone under BJP’s watchful eye. What about “ghar wapsi”?” Sibal tweeted.
On Wednesday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that Pilot was welcome back provided he left “the Haryana BJP government’s hospitality (MLAs backing Pilot are staying in hotels in Haryana)”.
Without Pilot and the other 18 MLAs, the Congress’s strength in the 200-member House will go down from 107 to 88 – or 89 with support of ally RLD. And this is where support of the Independents becomes crucial in order to reach the majority mark of 101.
Ten of these Independents, already ‘associated members’ of the Congress, are known to be in the camp of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Most of them, originally from Congress, contested the 2018 Assembly polls as Independents after being denied a party ticket given the power struggle between Pilot and Gehlot camps, and as such are mostly Gehlot loyalists. In the present crisis, they have issued statements in support of the CM.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s reported remarks at an NSUI meeting on Wednesday sent the party into a tizzy. Speaking to office-bearers of the party’s students wing, Rahul is said to have observed that whosoever wants to leave the party will leave and they should not be unduly worried about it. He reportedly added that when a big leader leaves the party, it will open doors for youths like them. The Congress immediately denied he made any such remark, as it was being read in the context of speculation that Sachin Pilot could leave the party. Read the snippet from Delhi Confidential
After Ashok Gehlot's stinging remarks on Sachin Pilot, sources said, Surjewala, who is part of the central team sent by the Congress to Jaipur to handle the crisis, had a meeting with the chief minister. It was conveyed to him that Rahul Gandhi wants to keep the doors open for Pilot. Sources said Gehlot told Surjewala he was not against that but Pilot would have to “leave the BJP camp”. Sources in Delhi said both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are keen to accommodate Pilot, and that Ahmed Patel was talking to him.
Even as the Congress reiterated that the party has not closed its doors on rebel leader Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Wednesday took a jibe at his former deputy, saying that “speaking good English or being handsome is not everything”. Gehlot also accused Pilot, who was the former state Congress president, of being involved in horse-trading with the BJP to topple his government.
“Speaking good English, giving good bytes and being handsome is not everything. What do you have in your heart, what commitment do you have, this all is seen,” Gehlot said, without mentioning Pilot by his name.
On Tuesday, the Congress stripped Pilot of both his posts—as deputy chief minister and state PCC chief—three days after his showdown with CM Gehlot. The party also cracked the whip on Pilot’s loyalists: Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena were removed from the state cabinet, and the state presidents of the Youth Congress and Seva Dal were replaced. The decision was announced after Pilot and his MLAs skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet in the morning — the second in two days — at a hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur, where the Gehlot camp is keeping Congress and other supporting MLAs. The meetings concluded with CM Gehlot establishing his majority, and with a recommendation to take action against the 19 MLAs. Read full report here.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has lost both his arms in Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said on Wednesday and added that a weaker Congress is good for the BJP, news agency PTI reported.
"We all saw what had happened in Madhya Pradesh. Now, it's happening again in Rajasthan. There seems to be some fault in the functioning of the Congress leadership," Patel said.
"These two young leaders (Pilot and Scindia) were like right and left hands of Rahul Gandhi. Now, he has lost both his arms," he added.
The Congress has sought the disqualification of Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs from the state assembly even as it repeated that the party has not closed its doors on him.
Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi confirmed that disqualification notices have been sent out Tuesday on the basis of the complaint made by the party. The dissidents have to reply by Friday.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also talked tough, accusing the former deputy chief minister of being directly involved in the alleged horse-trading with the opposition BJP to bring down his government.
The Congress on Wednesday dissolved its all-district and block committees in Rajasthan in a bid to revamp the state unit of the party, news agency PTI reported.
Announcing the decision, AICC general secretary in-charge for the Rajasthan Congress, said new committees will be formed soon.
Sources said the decision has come in the wake of Sachin Pilot's sacking as the deputy chief minister and the state Congress chief. The move is considered a step forward in removing all Pilot's men holding party positions at the grassroots level. (PTI)
The Rajasthan situation is in some ways similar to the situation that unfolded in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka recently. What does the law say, and what are the various scenarios that can unfold now? We explain.
Late on Tuesday (July 14) night, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi issued notices to 19 rebel Congress MLAs including Sachin Pilot on a petition seeking their disqualification by the Congress.
Pilot had been sacked as Deputy Chief Minister and chief of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee after he and his supporters failed to attend meetings of the Congress Legislature Party for two consecutive days.
The battle lines are now clearly drawn in the Rajasthan Congress. The BJP is watching and waiting for its opportunity to strike. What does the notice issued to Sachin Pilot and his supporters by the Rajasthan Speaker indicate? Read our Explainer to know.
"We saw media statements where you (Sachin Pilot) have said that you are not going to BJP. If it is so, leave the hotels of Haryana's Khattar government, stop talking to BJP members," Surjewala said during the press conference.
"Stop talking via media. Come to the party and keep things before us directly," he added.
Addressing a press conference on the ongoing crisis in Rajasthan government, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said: "We asked our young colleague Sachin Pilot and other party MLAs to keep their differences before the party and that we are ready to listen with an open mind."
"Speaking good English, giving good bytes and being handsome isn't everything. What is inside your heart for the country, your ideology, policies, and commitment, everything is considered," Gehlot said while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.
"We love the new generation. Tomorrow is theirs. Today's leadership, of our time, we struggled a lot 40 years ago in Youth Congress and NSUI. And after 40 years we are alive; some became PCC president, minister, AICC general secretary, and central ministers. The new generation which has come, it is wrong to say that we don't like them," Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot said.
"Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi like them. Ashok Gehlot likes them," he added.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said: "Horse trading was being done in Jaipur, we have the proof. We had to keep people at a hotel for 10 days, if we had not done that, the same thing that is happening in Manesar now would have happened back then"
The Congress petitions seeking the disqualification of 19 of its Rajasthan MLAs, including former deputy chief minister and state party president Sachin Pilot, have cited the legislators’ absence from successive Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings, conspiring to bring down the elected government in Rajasthan, and statements made by them to the press as grounds to establish that they have “voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress.” On Tuesday, the Rajasthan Assembly Secretariat issued notices to all the MLAs who are Pilot loyalists after the disqualification petitions were submitted by Congress Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi to Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi. Click here to read the full story.
The petitions filed by the Congress, seeking the disqualification of 19 MLAs from Rajasthan including former deputy chief minister and state party president Sachin Pilot have cited the legislators' absence from successive Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings, conspiring to bring down the elected government in Rajasthan and statements made by them to the media as grounds to establish that they have 'voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress.'
Some of the notices addressed to individual MLAs from the Pilot camp along with the petitions have been accessed by The Indian Express. The notices were pasted at the gateway of the residence of these legislators. In the petitions, it has been argued by the Congress Chief Whip that the actions of these legislators lead to the conclusion that they have 'voluntarily given up membership' of the Congress party and therefore should be disqualified.
The BJP has 72 MLAs of its own, and has the support of the 3 MLAs of the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, which takes its tally to 75. If the BJP sees an opportunity to topple the government, it can be expected to pull out all the stops to try to do so.
The 19 Congress MLAs have been given time until Friday (July 17) to reply to the Speaker’s notice. But they can challenge the notices served on them in court, either before or after that date. That will add a new dimension to the power struggle.
Should the disqualification process get stayed by a court order, and there is a trial of strength in the Assembly, the numbers game will become tight for Gehlot. That is because the Congress rebels may go with the BJP, and the saffron party will then have, along with Beniwal’s three MLAs, 94 votes in the Assembly. And the fortunes of Gehlot (88) will then depend solely on the 13 Independents and the MLAs of the smaller parties.
The Congress had won 100 seats in the Assembly elections of December 2018. The party won one seat (Ramgarh) later in a by-election, which took its tally to 101. Subsequently, six MLAs of the BSP joined the party, taking its tally to 107. With the issuing of the notices to 19 MLAs, the strength of the Congress in the Rajasthan Assembly now effectively stands at 88.
Gehlot claims the support of Independents and members of the smaller parties, and says that he still has the majority in the 200-member House But although he has claimed the support of 109 MLAs, the fact that 19 MLAs are with Pilot shows that he will have to depend heavily on the 13 Independents and MLAs of smaller parties like the BTP and the CPM to win in the event of a trial of strength in the House.
"We do not feel such need as of now. If we feel the need, the party will sit together and make a decision," says BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria
Sources said Pilot had two main demands: replace Gehlot and make him the CM, or give a public commitment that he will be made CM at least a year before the next Assembly elections in 2023. The demands, according to a Congress leader who was part of the talks, were “unreasonable”. Despite Pilot’s posturing that his fight is for “honor and justice” — in the context of the FIR and the SOG notice — sources said the post of the CM was at the heart of the negotiations
There are two main takeaways. First, the move clears all speculation about the exact number of MLAs who are with Pilot. Second, it shows that the numbers game in Rajasthan is much closer than what it had been assumed at the beginning of the crisis — even though Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot continues to have a slight edge.
Congress had filed a petition with Speaker C P Joshi, seeking the disqualification of all party MLAs who did not attend the CLP meeting, AICC general secretary Avinash Pande said on Wednesday. He said it was up to the Speaker to decide what action to take if the replies to the notices were not satisfactory. The party has also issued a gag order, saying no Congress member can communicate with the media without the permission of the newly appointed state unit chief.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel Tuesday announced the appointment of 15 Congress MLAs as parliamentary secretaries attached to offices of cabinet ministers in the state.
With the Congress having criticised the practice while in opposition in the state, the BJP said the party was trying to quell any chance of dissidence in the ranks, given the developments in Rajasthan. BJP MP Sunil Soni said the new appointees should thank Sachin Pilot, who was removed as Rajasthan Deputy CM on Tuesday after going public on his differences with the party, for their new appointments. BJP leader Rajesh Munat said, “The Congress, while in opposition, had challenged such appointments in the Chhattisgarh High Court. What happened now? CM Baghel has made these appointments to pacify dissidents.”
Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said Sachin Pilot should have shown patience. "Sachin Pilot was made an MP, a Central Minister, Rajasthan Party Chief & Deputy CM, what is his age? He is still young, he should have some patience. His actions have been against the party discipline. These youngsters do not have patience," he said, news agency PTI reported
Sachin Pilot tells The Indian Express that he's not joining BJP. Earlier talking to Express on Sunday, Pilot told that he's not aligning with the saffron party.
Rajasthan Congress in-charge Avinash Pande told news agency ANI that the party's doors are still open for Sachin Pilot. "May God give Sachin Pilot wisdom and he doesn't try to topple govt. He should admit his mistake. Doors were always open for him for talks, even today. But, now he seems to have moved ahead of all this, so these things don't matter now."
In the latest episode of the Three Things podcast, we explain the options before Sachin Pilot after his sacking as the deputy chief minister of Rajasthan. Listen to our podcast.
Talking to news agency PTI, Sachin Pilot reiterated that he's not joining BJP. "Some leaders in Rajasthan trying to fuel speculation that I am joining BJP but I am not doing so. I have worked very hard to bring Congress back in govt in Rajasthan," Pilot told the agency.
The first hints of a disqualification threat were dropped by Chief Minister Gehlot himself. Speaking to reporters after meeting Governor Kalraj Mishra, Gehlot said party MLAs can express lack of confidence in the Chief Minister and seek his removal at the legislature party meeting in the presence of central observers, but if they demand a floor test in the Assembly, then they can attract disqualification since it shows their intention to topple the government with the help of the BJP.
Nineteen rebels have been issued notice by the Speaker and asked to respond by Friday. If the rebels are disqualified, it will be an advantage for the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan as the majority-mark in case of a floor test will be brought down.
The BJP, meanwhile, will go into a huddle today. Senior leaders including former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, BJP national vice president Om Mathur, state president Satish Poonia, Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Katariya, national joint general secretary (organisation) V Satish and state organisation secretary Chandrashekhar are expected to attend the meeting to decide the party strategy and future course of action.
A day after Congress leader Sachin Pilot was sacked as deputy chief minister, Speaker C P Joshi's office has issued notice to rebel MLAs seeking their reply by July 17. The notice was learned to have been issued late yesterday. Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi had petitioned Speaker CP Joshi for disqualification of rebel MLAs yesterday. Sources said Gehlot and AICC observers Ajay Maken and Randeep Surjewala held many rounds of discussions with Abhishek Singhvi, party leader and lawyer, to draw up a plan for the legal battle. At the same time, the threat of disqualification, sources said, can be used to try and bring back some of the MLAs from the Pilot camp.