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Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said his government will soon prove its majority in the assembly, hours before he met the governor with whom he is said to have discussed calling a session of the House.
“The assembly session will take place soon. The majority is with us, all Congress MLAs are united,” Gehlot told reporters.
He hoped that some of the dissident MLAs, who are led by sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, will also attend the session when it is called “very soon”.
“Without them too, we have a complete majority and will go to the House on the basis of this majority, and we will prove it,” he said.
About three hours after this interaction with the media, Gehlot met governor Kalraj Mishra at the Raj Bhavan.
Congress sources said the two discussed the possibility of calling a session of the Vidhan Sabha.
The indication that the Gehlot government is preparing for a floor test in the assembly comes a day ahead of the expected pronouncement of a high court order on the disqualification notices sent by the Speaker to the rebel MLAs.
But any high court order will be subject to the outcome of a petition by the Rajasthan Speaker that the Supreme Court is now hearing, the three-judge bench has made it clear.
The 19 dissident MLAs had filed a petition in the high court, challenging the disqualification notices.
Gehlot said those who went to court are the ones who were wrong and had been misguided.
“They are calling us and saying that they are unable to come out,” he said, hinting at reports that the rebel MLAs are camping together, just like the ones in his camp. “Bouncers are deployed,” he alleged.
“I hope that some of them, when they come out, will vote with us,” the chief minister said, adding that his government is in majority even without their support.
Gehlot said the coronavirus pandemic and political issues will be discussed in the assembly session.
Including the dissidents who face the possibility of disqualification, the Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member state assembly and the BJP 72.
Targeting Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the chief minister said the audio clips which indicate an alleged plot to topple his government can be sent abroad for forensic tests.
Without taking the minister's name, Gehlot questioned why he is not coming forward to give a voice sample.
Rejecting the charge that the audio clips are fabricated, he said they can be sent to any forensic science laboratory for examination.
“We can send it for FSL testing to America if they have no trust in the Rajasthan government, he said, adding that the Congress also did not trust the Centre.
Shekhawat has rejected the Congress charge that it is his voice in one of the three clips.
The party has accused the BJP of engineering a plot to lure Congress MLAs away.
When asked about the raids in the state, Gehlot claimed that the central agencies were acting on the directions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah under “Modi raj”.
The Enforcement Directorate recently searched the premises of his brother as part of a nationwide investigation into an alleged fertiliser export scam. “We are not afraid of the raids and our mission is not going to stop,” he said.
“The BJP policies and programmes are going to ruin the country,” he said. ”They are fascist people and are murdering democracy.”
He mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi or getting people to beat “thalis” or light candles, when the nation is facing a dangerous pandemic.