Rajasthan Governor finally agrees to session but with conditions

The Congress has claimed that five measures it adopted compelled the Rajasthan Governor to allow the assembly session to be convened but with conditions, paving the way for the Ashok Gehlot-led government to seek a confidence vote in the House.

On Monday morning, the legal team led by Kapil Sibal withdrew the petition filed by the Speaker in the apex court.

The Congress on Monday organised protests at Raj Bhavans across the country except Jaipur. In Delhi, the state party President Anil Chaudhary led a march and was detained briefly by the police.

Three former union ministers -- Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and Ashwani Kumar -- wrote to the Governor in which they said, "the Governor is obliged to call the assembly session in accordance with the advice of the state Cabinet."

Former union minister P Chidambaram held a press conference and sought the intervention of the President in the matter and said, "I sincerely hope that honourable President of India will instruct the governor to perform his duty."

The Governor has no "discretion" in the matter. The questions that the Governor had raised to stall the request to call an Assembly session were irrelevant and beyond his authority, Chidambaram said.

But the final push came when Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue, sources said.

Speaking to the MLAs staying in Fairmont hotel here, Gehlot said, "I have spoken to PM Modi and informed him about the governor's behaviour. I have also spoken to him about the letter I sent him a week ago informing about horse-trading in Rajasthan."

After the hectic parleys, the Governor yielded and gave the go ahead for convening the assembly session. Governor Kalraj Mishra allowed the state government to convene a special assembly session but with conditions. He said that the session should be called on 21 days notice so that MLAs during corona times may not face problems coming to Jaipur and all of them can get equal rights and equal opportunity under Article 14 of the Constitution.

Earlier in the day Governor Kalraj Mishra returned the file sent by the state government which requested him to allow the special assembly session in the state.

This was the second time the state government had sent a file to the Governor to get approval for its proposal to call a special assembly session.