Congress MLAs supporting Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during the ongoing political turmoil in Rajasthan were on Friday shifted from a hotel outside Jaipur to a luxury resort near Jaisalmer in chartered flights amid fresh allegations of horse-trading by the BJP.
While 53 MLAs left in the first batch for the Thar desert town, 560 km from Jaipur, others left subsequently by chartered flights in the evening.
AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who have been camping in Jaipur as central observers, joined a small group of MLAs.
The Gehlot camp has been claiming the support of 102 MLAs, including the Independents, in the 200-member Assembly. The legislators are likely to stay in Jaisalmer until the Assembly session, summoned by Governor Kalraj Mishra after much persuasion by the government, begins on August 14.
Mr. Gehlot told reporters at Japiur’s Sanganer airport that the MLAs supporting him had started getting calls with “threats and inducements” soon after the date for commencement of the Assembly session was announced.
“We decided to shift them to keep the external pressure away... They were being mentally harassed,” he said.
Reiterating his charge that the BJP was hatching a conspiracy to topple his government after its similar action in several States, Mr. Gehlot said it was the primary duty of everyone to save democracy.
“When the Home Ministry is after us, we have to make all efforts to save the government with people's support. Home Minister Amit Shah is in the forefront of bringing down the elected governments,” he said.
The Chief Minister hoped that the Congress MLAs supporting the now sacked Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, who were camping in BJP-ruled Haryana, would return to the party fold when the Assembly session begins. A confidence vote is likely to be sought by the government during the session.
Mr. Gehlot said he would stay on in Jaipur along with his ministerial colleagues, ensuring “no compromise on governance” during the pandemic. He said the Congress government's management to prevent the spread of virus infection and tests and treatment of COVID-19 patients had been praised all over the country because of high recovery rate.
BJP State president Satish Poonia targeted Mr. Gehlot for ferrying the MLAs to Jaisalmer. “Ahead of Jaisalmer is Pakistan. On the other side is Gujarat. How far will the government run to prevent a split in the [ruling] party? It will be better to give them utensils to drive the locusts away in the desert,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan police has decided to move the High Court to obtain a voice sample of an alleged middleman, Sanjay Jain, arrested after audio tapes of his alleged conversations to topple the State government were made public. After being produced in a Magistrate's court on Friday, Mr. Jain refused to give his voice sample, saying he did not have faith in the SOG’s investigation.
