The rebellious move of MLAs supporting Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is gross indiscipline and action will be taken against them, Congress state-in-charge Ajay Maken said while interacting with the media in Jaipur on Monday.
When the Congress high command had called an official legislature party meeting, boycotting it and calling a parallel meeting at the residence of Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal was gross indiscipline, he pointed out.
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was supposed to be held at 7 pm at Chief Minister’s Residence in Jaipur but the supporters of Gehlot gathered at Dhariwal’s house instead. Later, they reached speaker CP Joshi’s residence to hand over their resignations.
“The meeting of CLP was called after taking consent from CM Ashok Gehlot but the kind of attitude shown by the MLAs by Gehlot faction is completely wrong. We have been continuously telling the MLAs in Gehlot camp that we will listen to everyone separately and will put up their demands before the party high command but these MLAs did not attend the meeting,” said Maken.
Maken said, “Ministers Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi, and Pratap Singh Khachariyawas had come to us as representatives. They put forth three conditions. The first condition was that the party will meet the MLAs in a group and not individually. The second condition was that the meeting of the CLP should be called only after October 19; and the third was that 102 MLAs played an important role in saving the government when Pilot rebelled and hence, one of them should be made the Chief Minister.”
According to Congress tradition, MLAs send a resolution to Delhi without any rider and the high command decision is final and acceptable to everyone. Maken revealed that the MLAs of the Gehlot camp have demanded to add the three conditions (mentioned above) in the resolution.
“This is not acceptable. It has never happened in the history of Congress that conditions are added to a proposal. The proposal comes with a single line and after that, the party high command gets to decide,” said Maken.
Maken made it clear that a report will be sent to Sonia Gandhi about the MLAs who have resigned and who have not attended the meeting on Sunday evening.