The Congress MLAs, who had tendered en masse resignations in protest against a one-line resolution sought in a special CLP meeting on the orders of party high command on September 25, on Saturday started withdrawing their papers after meeting the Legislative Assembly Speaker Dr C P Joshi at his residence here.
Yesterday, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, party in-charge and former deputy chief minister of Punjab, visited the SpeakerJoshi’s residence and held parleys in relation to the 92 MLAs’ en masse resignation given to the latter on September 25, and the MLAs were told to withdraw their resignations individually.
Chief Whip of the Congress party, Dr Mahesh Joshi, was among the twelve MLAs who withdrew their resignations voluntarily so far this afternoon.
Keeping their lips tight on the matter, the MLAs who went to meet the speaker and got their papers back, while coming out in their cars simply told the media that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will present the next fiscal year’s budget in the assembly session scheduled to begin on January 23. They also hinted that there would be no replacement for the Chief Minister Gehlot.
Rajendra Pareek, a senior Congress MLA, told SNS, “I had resigned on the voice of the people of Sikar and took it back as my public want that I should work for them”.
Another MLA, Nagraj Meena, from Dhariawad assembly constituency, said it was his sweet will to withdraw his resignation.
There was no response from the Speaker’s office-cum-residence to comment on the move of the MLAs.
It is pertinent to mention here that in a strong move to stop Sachin Pilot from becoming a CM before Ashok Gehlot’s filing of nomination for the party president post, altogether 92 Congress MLAs including senior Ministers, had submitted their resignations to Speaker Joshi. Chief Whip of the ruling Congress and PHED Minister Dr Mahesh Joshi, Deputy Whip Mahendra Choudhary, CM’s advisor Sanyam Lodha, Parliamentary Affairs and UDH Minister Shanti Dhariwal handed over their resignations to the Speaker after three hours of political drama at Dhariwal’s residence where MLAs decided to quit if their three points demands are not fulfilled.
The Congress was bound to take a decision on the pending issue of resignations as the High Court has served a show cause notice to the Speaker over the en masse resignation and seeking their reply within 3 weeks on a PIL moved by the Deputy Leader of Opposition (BJP) R S Rathore.
Meanwhile, Rathore reacted to the withdrawal of resignations by Congress MLAs saying, “There is no provision in the law for withdrawal of resignations. The Speaker should not allow the MLAs who resigned to continue as legislators”.