Rajasthan Crisis: The BSP late on Sunday issued the whip. (File)
The Bahujan Samaj Party has issued a whip to six MLAs in Rajasthan to vote against the Congress if a floor test happens to check the strength of the Ashok Gehlot government. Mr Gehlot has been struggling to keep his government afloat after a rebellion by Sachin Pilot and MLAs loyal to him.
All the six Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) MLAs had merged with the Congress, which could lead to a tangle of technicalities as according to this definition, there are no BSP MLAs in the Rajasthan assembly.
The party led by former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati had approached the Election Commission to consider these six MLAs as BSP MLAs during the Rajya Sabha polls, but the Election Commission had refused to intervene in that as it's the Speaker's domain.
The BSP late on Sunday issued the whip to R Gudha, Lakhan Singh, Deep Chand, JS Awana, Sandeep Kumar and Wajib Ali.
"Notices have been issued to the six MLAs separately as well as collectively, stating that since BSP is a national party, there cannot be any merger at the state level at the instance of the six MLAs, unless there is a merger of the BSP at the national level. If they violate it, they will be disqualified," BSP National General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra told news agency ANI.
Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi today also rejected a BJP MLA's plea challenging the merger of the six BSP MLAs with the Congress and seeking their disqualification.
In a second proposal to Governor Kalraj Mishra for calling an assembly session on July 31, Ashok Gehlot said the agenda is the coronavirus pandemic. The Governor had turned down the first proposal pointing out that it did not mention a date or a reason for the assembly session.
Winning a trust vote will give the Ashok Gehlot government a respite for the next six months. But if a trust vote is held now, when the 19 rebels are yet to be disqualified, the rebels can vote against their own party. Even if they get disqualified later, their vote will count.
The BJP seems to have done the math. It has 76 MLAs in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly and to form government, the party will need the support of at least 25 more MLAs. But the BJP is looking at an additional 10 MLAs as a buffer.
Today, the Supreme Court is expected to examine the issue of the powers of assembly speakers and whether courts have a say in their decisions.
Sources have said the Congress is divided over pursuing the case in the Supreme Court. A section wants the party to pull its petition out of court and handle the matter politically.