The ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan intensfied on Tuesday (July 14) with the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) passing a resolution to take action against rebel Sachin Pilot and other MLAs who decided to skip the CLP meeting for the second time in as many days.
The Congress MLAs present in the meeting passed resolution to issue show-cause notice against Pilot and other party MLAs who remained absent from CLP meeting in Jaipur on Tuesday. It is expected that the party would issue disciplinary notice against the rebel MLAs soon. During the CLP meet, Rajasthan Congress in-charge Avinash Pande agreed to take action against Pilot and his loyalist MLAs by raising the hands of the legislators.
Sources claimed that the Congress high command is likely to take strict action against Pilot and may sack him from the party for revolting against the party. Pilot is likely to be removed as Rajasthan Pradesh Congress chief too. Pilot loyalist MLAs, who did not attend the last two CLP meetings, are also expected to face action and it is likely that they would be suspended from the party. Sources said that Govind Singh Dotasra is likely to replace Pilot as the next Congress chief in Rajasthan.
Notably, Pilot and 16 other MLAs who are considered close to him had skipped the first CLP meeting on Monday too.
Senior Congress leader Pande and Randeep Singh Surjewala are scheduled to address a press conference after the CLP meeting and the two leaders will provide details of the resolutions passed during the CLP meet in the press conference.
The political crisis in Rajasthan started on Sunday (July 12) after Pilot raised the banner of revolt against CM Gehlot and sent a message to the party that he may quit the party with this loyalist MLAs. Pilot claimed in some interviews that he has the support of over 30 MLAs.
ANI quoted sources as saying several senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ahmed Patel, P. Chidambaram and KC Venugopal have talked to Pilot several times in order to defuse the crisis but he remained adamant on his stand. Congress sources claimed on Tuesday that Pilot was unwilling to accept anything less than the chief minister's post and he put forward his demand during his conversation with some senior leaders of the Congress.
Meanwhile, CM Gehlot proved his strength once again on Tuesday as 102 MLAs attended the CLP meeting at Hotel Fairmount in Jaipur. In 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, 101 MLAs are needed to save the government.
