BJP Moves Rajasthan HC on Resignation of 80 Congress MLAs from Assembly

GG News Bureau

Jaipur, 2nd Dec. The issue of over 80 ruling Congress MLAs resigning from the Assembly reached the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday, with the BJP filing a petition seeking the court’s intervention.

Rajendra Rathore, the state’s deputy leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, asked the High Court on Thursday to order the Assembly Speaker to make a “decision” on the mass resignations by September 25, at the earliest.

Over 80 Congress legislators, thought to be Gehlot loyalists, tendered their resignations in protest of the Congress high command’s decision to install former Union minister Sachin Pilot as Rajasthan chief minister in place of Ashok Gehlot, who was thought to be the frontrunner for the post of Congress national president.

The resignations caught the high command off guard just weeks before the election of the first non-Gandhi Congress national president in more than three decades.

The resignations came on a day the Congress’ former Rajasthan in-charge, Ajay Maken, had convened a meeting of MLAs to reportedly install Pilot as the next CM. With the Gehlot loyalists not showing up, the meeting had to be cancelled.

Even as Gehlot later pulled out of the polls to elect the next Congress chief, Maken stepped down as the party’s Rajasthan in-charge voicing his dspleasure over the sequence of events.

Mallikarjun Kharge, a veteran Dalit leader, was elected the new Congress president, defeating his challenger and fellow Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor.

Gehlot remained chief minister after Congress’ attempt to install Pilot as CM was thwarted. His loyalist MLAs, on the other hand, did not withdraw their resignations from the Assembly.

Rathore told reporters before filing his petition on Thursday, “The Speaker hasn’t yet taken a decision on the resignation of over 80 Congress MLAs from the Rajasthan Assembly.”

With the case now in court, the state may face a new political crisis ahead of the Assembly elections next year.

CM Gehlot and his former deputy Pilot have recently had several run-ins. After a previous rebellion orchestrated by Pilot was foiled, the Rajasthan Chief Minister went on record as calling him “nakara” and “nikamma” (useless).

In the most recent instance, Gehlot called Pilot a “traitor” in an interview with a private television news channel, adding that he will be Rajasthan’s chief minister.

Pilot had responded to the Rajasthan chief minister by calling his allegations “baseless.”