Jaisalmer/Jaipur: Congress MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot shifted from a Jaipur resort to Jaisalmer on Friday, prepared to spend at least the next fortnight holed up in a hotel there.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot boarded one of the five chartered flights to the city, 550 kms away from the state capital by road. But he indicated he will be back. He told reporters at the airport there will be no compromise with the government’s work as he and the ministers will remain in Jaipur.
In Delhi, the Congress approached the Supreme Court against the Rajasthan High Court order restraining the assembly Speaker from acting on the disqualification notices issued to Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs.
AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also travelled to Jaisalmer with the MLAs. The party claimed about 100 people – including MLAs from the Congress, allies and independents – boarded the flights.
The MLAs had remained confined to Fairmont hotel on the Delhi-Jaipur highway since July 13. The Gehlot camp is keeping the MLAs together for a possible vote of confidence it has indicated it will seek when the state assembly meets from August 14.
Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said the MLAs are being shifted to Jaisalmer so that they can remain united. The chief minister’s strategy is that not a single MLA is poached, he added.
While Gehlot flashed the victory sign at Jaipur airport, the opposition BJP mocked the Congress move, coming when it claims that its MLAs are united. “What after this? Pakistan lies ahead,” BJP’s Rajasthan president Satish Poonia said in a statement referring to Jaisalmer’s location. “When the party MLAs are united and all is well, why is there a need to keep them together?”
Congress chief whip in Rajasthan Assembly, Mahesh Joshi, on Friday filed a petition challenging the high court order asking the speaker to defer disqualification proceeding against the dissident MLAs. (PTI)
