In a major twist to the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, which looked like coming to an end with rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot returning to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s camp, BJPs opposition leader Gulab Chand Kataria yesterday said his party will move a no-confidence motion against the state government in the special Assembly session starting today.
The BJP convened a legislative party meeting yesterday, which was attended by Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, national general secretary Muralidhar Rao, state BJP president Satish Poonia, national vice-presidents Avinash Rai Khanna and Vasundhara Raje, national joint general Secretary (organisation) V Satish, Gulab Chand Kataria and deputy opposition leader Rajendra Singh Rathore, among others.
Before the start of the meeting, Satish Poonia said the state government was struggling on many fronts and hence the party is expected to move a no-confidence motion.
Kataria later said that for over a month, the Gehlot government has been camping in hotels, ignoring the ambitious central government schemes for the state.
“This government is acting against what it is preaching,” he added.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje also made a scathing attack on the Congress, saying the party has been ignoring the people and their problems ever since coming to power in the state over one-and-a-half years ago.
“It changed the names of our schemes; now we want to take the benefits of the central schemes to the people,” she said.
Raje has come to Jaipur for the first time during the ongoing political crisis in the state. She has all through maintained a stoic silence on the issue, except making a few tweets, besides recently meeting BJP national president J P Nadda and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi.
Meanwhile Congress officials in Jaipur yesterday said the suspension of two Rajasthan Congress legislators including Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh has been revoked.
Avinash Pandey, AICC general secretary, in his tweet, said, “After a consultative discussion, the suspension of @INCRajasthan MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma and @vishvendrabtp is hereby revoked.”
The two legislators were stripped off primary membership of the Congress after the party accused them of conspiring to topple the Gehlot government.
The party mentioned leaked audio tapes to suggest that the two legislators along with Tonk legislator Sachin Pilot had entered into a conspiracy with the BJP.
The crucial state Assembly session starts from today and the two MLAs have been invited by the party to attend the session.