If the court in Rajasthan favors Sachin Pilot…
If the court in Rajasthan favors Sachin Pilot, then Congress plan B in Rajasthan.
If Sachin Pilot and his rebel MLAs get disqualified from the Rajasthan High Court, the Congress has decided an alternative. The hearing in the case will resume on Monday.
The Sachin Pilot Camp took the Congress to court last week, assuming that they did not engage in any anti-party activity.
Sources in the Congress legal team said that if the court favors Mr Pilot’s team, the party plans to call the assembly as a next step.
In the Assembly, the Chief Minister will prove his number, which the Congress claims is above the majority mark. Chief whip Mahesh Joshi, who is the defendant in the case, will issue a whip to all Congress MLAs to vote in favor of the party.
If the team pilot violates the whip, or misbehaves, they will be disqualified under section 2 (1) (b) of the Tenth Schedule for acting contrary to the whip. However, this can be challenged in court.
The current disqualification proceeding against Mr. Pilot and his team is under Section 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, also known as the Anti-Defection Law.
Asked if the MLAs in the Sachin Pilot Camp would attend the assembly session, if anyone is called, one of the MLAs told NDTV, “Let the time come”.
Notices were issued to Mr. Pilot and 18 MLAs accompanying him. Notices were pasted outside his home, which were sent as text messages and WhatsApp, with the team camping at an undisclosed location in Haryana.
The MLA went to court on Thursday, seeking to dismiss the Speaker’s notice. Differences between elected representatives and the party cannot be considered as anti-party activity and the exclusion of two meetings is not grounds for disqualification, he said. He also asked that the anti-defection law, under which the Speaker had sought to disqualify him, was also removed.
The disqualification of the rebels would lower the majority mark in the 200-member assembly and give Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot a shot to save his government.
Gehlot, who met the Governor on Saturday intensified the speculation of floor test, claiming that he had the support of 109 MLAs.
