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Ashok Gehlot sends fresh proposal to Rajasthan Guv on Assembly session from July 31; third in 5 days

The development comes after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, earlier in the day, chaired a cabinet meeting in Jaipur day after Governor Mishra sent back his request, with queries, for an assembly session.

Ashok Gehlot sends fresh proposal to Rajasthan Guv on Assembly session from July 31; third in 5 days

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other Congress leaders. (File Photo: Twitter | @ipradhanjii)

The Congress government in Rajasthan on Tuesday afternoon sent a fresh proposal to Governor Kalraj Mishra seeking to summon a special Assembly session from July 31.

The said proposal reportedly includes the Government’s reply on the three conditions to be met to convene the session.

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The development comes after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, earlier in the day, chaired a cabinet meeting in Jaipur day after Governor Mishra sent back his request, with queries, for an assembly session. The meeting went on for over two hours.

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The Governor has twice returned the state government’s proposal to convene a special Assembly session to discuss the prevailing situation in the state.

Last Friday, Governor Kalraj Mishra had refused to accede to Ashok Gehlot’s call for an Assembly session to prove his government’s majority, and sought a reply on six points from the state government, including about the reason to call a session of the Assembly for a floor test.

Following this, the Rajasthan chief minister, in a late-night meeting on Friday, discussed the six points raised by the Governor for calling an assembly session.

Then, Gehlot submitted a fresh proposal on Sunday and listed Coronavirus and economy as the agenda for the special session.

However, the Raj Bhawan on Monday, returned the files related to the convening of the Assembly session to the Parliamentary Affairs Department of the state and sought some additional details from the Congress government on how it plans to conduct the session amidst the pandemic.

Following this, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told reporters that he spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi informing him about the Governor’s “behaviour”.

“Spoke to PM yesterday over Governor’s conduct. I spoke with him regarding the letter I had written to him seven days back,” Gehlot said.

“The Governor has once again sent us a six-page love letter,” he said and added that Governors are bound to approve when an elected government calls for an assembly session.

“PD Acharya has written an article in which it is said that this is the first time in 70 years when the Governor has refused to call the assembly session,” Gehlot added.

Shortly after, the Governor issued a statement allowing the state government to convene a special Assembly session but with conditions.

In a statement, the Rajasthan Raj Bhawan said that “Not convening the Assembly was never the intention” and raised three questions for the Ashok Gehlot government on its proposal for convening the Assembly session.

The Governor questioned if the Chief Minister wanted to bring a trust vote or not.

Further stating that it would be difficult to call all the MLAs for the Assembly session in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor asked, “Can you consider giving a 21-day notice over the convening of Assembly session?”

The Rajasthan Governor finally questioned how social distancing would be maintained during the Assembly session.

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, which is facing a political crisis after rebellion by 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including rebel party leader Sachin Pilot, wants to hold the assembly session to prove its majority.

Meanwhile, some Congress MLAs reportedly sent a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind requesting his intervention to resolve the crisis in the state.

The memorandum informed the President of the alleged horse-trading in Rajasthan to topple the elected democratic government by the BJP.

In the memorandum sent to the President and drafted on behalf of Congress assembly members, it is mentioned that democratic and constitutional values are being openly flouted by the BJP which is trying to weaken democracy.

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