Rajasthan Congress gets HC jolt during Bharat Jodo Yatra

Notice sent to Speaker Joshi over resignations of 91 MLAs during ‘CM Gehlot’s tussle’
Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, on Tuesday. (Photo| Express)
Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, on Tuesday. (Photo| Express)

JAIPUR: Even as Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its second day in Rajasthan on Tuesday, the Congress received a jolt with the High Court issuing a notice to the Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi over the resignations of 91 party MLAs on September 25.

A division bench of Justices MM Srivastava and VK Bhavani gave the order on a PIL filed by BJP leader Rajendra Singh Rathore, since the Speaker has not yet taken any decision on the issue. The petition said if an MLA submits his resignation under Rule 173 of the Legislative Assembly Procedure, the Speaker has no option but to accept the resignation and can only examine whether the resignation is voluntary and genuine or not.

The petition also said that it is possible that such a huge number of MLAs may have been forced to give their resignations or their signatures were forged, and the government has lost confidence in the House due to the resignation of MLAs. “The court has issued a two weeks’ notice after the hearing,” Rathore said.

“The Speaker and the secretary of the Assembly will have to present why they have not yet decided on these resignations even after a lapse of 70 days,” he added. Meanwhile, Rahul faced pro-Modi slogans when his rally passed in front of the office of Lok Sabha MP Dushyant Singh, the son of former Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje in Jhalawar district, which is the BJP leader’s bastion.

Rahul shook hands with the BJP workers and also asked Sachin Pilot and Ramlal Jat, who were walking along, to greet them. The Congress leaders waved at the crowd, and even blew a few flying kisses towards them, which led to a burst of clapping from the onlookers. This, the Congress said, is a reflection of the kind of politics Rahul wants to promote through his Yatra. Rahul also said on the social media that the purpose of his Yatra is to counter the politics of hatred that is being spread in the country.

“Neither malice, nor irritation, nor anger — there is none of these in the heart of any of our Yatris. There is something to unite India, sympathy for the problems of Indians and love for all countrymen…,” he posted. Meanwhile, amid continuing internal tussle in the Congress in Rajasthan, senior Punjab leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has been appointed as the state on-charge in place of Ajay Maken, who resigned a few weeks ago. Randhawa has also been nominated as a member of the Congress Steering Committee. In the last two-and-a-half years, two state in-charges have resigned in Rajasthan, but the Gehlot-Pilot dispute remains unresolved.

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