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Amid a power tussle in the Rajasthan government, sources close to Sachin Pilot on Sunday said the letter asking the deputy chief minister to appear for questioning in a probe into alleged attempts to destabilise his own government has "crossed all limits" and made it "untenable" for those MLAs supporting him to work under Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
The MLAs supporting Pilot cannot stand the repeated undermining of Pilot, also the state PCC chief, by the Gehlot camp and the letter by the police's special operations group sent to the deputy chief minister was to "humiliate him", sources said.
Pilot is in Delhi, and MLAs supporting him have resolved that they cannot work under Gehlot's chief ministership after the letter was served to "publicly discredit" the PCC chief, sources said, and asserted that there were problems before also but this letter has crossed all limits and such humiliation cannot be tolerated.
On the Rajasthan police issuing notice to Gehlot also to record his statement, sources said the notice to the chief minister, also holding the charge of state home affairs, was only an "eyewash" so that the deputy chief minister can be summoned by the SOG and humiliated.
"Never before has a sitting state party president and deputy chief minister has been served with such a letter", a source said.
The notices to Gehlot and Pilot were issued after the SOG on Friday registered an FIR against two people, who have been detained, for their alleged involvement in horse trading of Congress MLAs for toppling the state government.
Gehlot on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata party of trying to topple his government by offering his legislators large sums of money, and said his administration is not just stable but will complete its five-year term.
The BJP had asked Gehlot to prove his allegation of horse-trading levelled against it or quit politics, and claimed he was targeting the opposition party as he was unable to check the infighting in the state Congress.
Soon after it had won the assembly election, both Gehlot and Pilot were in the race for the chief minister's post. The party high command later named Gehlot as the CM and Pilot his deputy.
The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member state assembly.