Gehlot pitches for Assembly session from July 31

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has submitted a fresh proposal to Governor Kalraj Mishra to convene a special session of the state Assembly session from July 31. The agenda for the session has been changed to coronavirus, sources said, and there is no word of a floor test.

The Governor had earlier turned down Gehlot's proposal to call an assembly session. He said the CM's letter sent on Saturday night did not mention a date or a reason for calling the session, and that he would examine it.

Not seeking a floor test in the assembly would be a major shift in Congress's stand as Gehlot had at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on Saturday said that the plan was to have a floor test to prove that the majority of Congress MLAs and allies are with him in the tussle for power.

He also said that if necessary, Congress MLAs will meet the President and hold a sit-in outside the Prime Minister's residence to settle the crisis in the state. On Friday, Congress MLAs had squatted on the lawns of the Raj Bhawan for five hours, demanding that Governor Kalraj Mishra should summon a session of the Vidhan Sabha.

The Governor asked Gehlot to submit again his recommendation for calling a session, clarifying six points. These included queries on free movement of MLAs and the reason the session needs to be summoned urgently. Even as it seeks the Governor's nod for a session, the Congress sought to keep up the pressure on him and accused him of acting in a partisan way and listening what it dubbed as voice of his masters at the Centre.

"The Governors are bound the function with the aid and advice of the state government (council of ministers) but he is listening to his masters' voice, that is from the government at the Centre," party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, while addressing a press conference in Delhi.