Ashok Gehlot’s faceoff with governor ends, Rajasthan assembly to meet on August 14
Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishra had earlier in the day sent back the proposal to call the session from July 31, asking for concrete reasons to call a session on short notice at a time the coronavirus pandemic is raging across the country.
Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishra has finally given a go ahead to state government’s proposal to convene a session of the legislative assembly from August 14 after having rejected three earlier proposals citing technicalities.
The nod comes after the state government led by chief minister Ashok Gehlot decided to send a one line revised proposal altering the date of convening session to August 14 from the earlier proposed date of July 31, meeting a key requirement of 21-day prior notice as mentioned by Mishra on several occasions.
“We have again sent a proposal to Governor Kalraj Mishra seeking to convene the Assembly session. We hope that the Governor will accept the proposal this time and announce the date to begin the session soon,” Pratap Khachariyawas, a minister in the Gehlot government, was quoted as saying by a news agency.
This marks the culmination of a prolonged stand-off between the government and governor on the issue which began with Mishra returning the first proposal sent by the government to call an assembly session on July 23.
The Rajasthan governor had since then held his ground and cited a few requirements for calling a session—21-day advance notice, stating the purpose of calling the session, maintenance of social distancing norms and recording of floor test proceedings, if it is held.
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The Gehlot government had been insisting that issues such as seating arrangements for maintenance of social distancing and legislative business were in the domain of assembly speaker and house business committee respectively and the governor had little legal room to press for any definite commitment on those aspects.
Mishra had asked Gehlot to specifically mention that his government wants to bring a trust motion in the house if he wanted an assembly session to be convened at a short notice.
The Rajasthan government is in turmoil after the rebellion by Sachin Pilot and his 18 followers, all Congress MLAs. Gehlot has been insisting that his government still has the majority support.
