Ashok Gehlot speaks to PM on political situation in Rajasthan, CLP submits memorandum to Prez

Jaipur, July 27: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the current political situation in the state, while the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has submitted a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind.

Gehlot had also written a letter to the prime minister on the matter a few days ago. CLP members in the memorandum claimed that horse-trading of MLAs was taking place in Rajasthan to topple an elected government.

Governors of many states are "defying" the Constitution at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre without worrying about the dignity of the post, they alleged.

"The chief minister told that he has spoken to the prime minister and apprised him of the current political situation in the state,” a Congress leader said after a meeting at a hotel where MLAs are holed up following rebellion by Sachin Pilot against the Gehlot government.

Pilot has been stripped of his position as deputy chief minister and Rajasthan Congress chief. The Chief Minister addressed the MLAs at the meeting after a Prarthna Sabha and it was attended by senior Congress leaders. In the memorandum to Kovind, the CLP members demanded that the President intervene and give permission to the state government to call an assembly session.

India is battling the COVID-19 pandemic and the Rajasthan government wants to call the assembly session to discuss with all members the economic problems facing the state along with the coronavirus situation so that people get relief. But the state government is not being allowed to call the session, they said in the memorandum.

Without taking any names, the CLP members said that despite prima facie evidence of horse-trading and corrupt practices by Union ministers, not removing them from the cabinet is a "blot" on democracy. With a feeling of political vendetta, the use of investigative agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department to weaken and intimidate democratically elected governments and public representatives is highly condemnable, the CLP members said.

Recently the ED had raided Ashok Gehlot's elder brother Agrasen Gehlot's house in Jodhpur in a fertilisers scam case.

The CLP members in the memorandum urged the President to intervene in Rajasthan and wherever efforts are being made to undermine democracy through undemocratic methods and corrupt practices.