In view of the political instability in Madhya Pradesh, Congress MLAs continued their stay at two resorts in Jaipur. Senior Congress leaders like Harish Ravat, Mukul Wasnik and Rajasthan incharge Avinash Pande visited the legislators who have been housed to keep them safe from poaching.
While the Congress accused BJP of horse trading and misuse of money and muscle power, it apparently had its own hands full to ensure confidence building among the legislators about their numbers. For this a lunch for all the legislators was organised at the Buena Vista Resort. The legislators staying at the Tree House Resort were taken to Buen Vista for this. Informal talks were held among the MP MLAs and senior leaders and senior leaders Harish Ravat and Mukul Wasnik urged them to maintain unity. They also told the MLAs to keep their morale high. The legislators urged them to bring the remaining legislators from Bengaluru to Jaipur. To which the senior leaders asked the legislators to extend support to did this.
Speaking to the media Mukul Wasnik said, “We are not being allowed to meet the legislators in Bengaluru. Mahendra Choudhary, the father of one of our MLAs Manoj Choudhary was not allowed to meet his son. Our leader Jeetu Patwari was also manhandled. This is rowdiness on the part of BJP.”
Harish Ravat said, “All our MLAs are with us. There is no ambiguity of numbers.”
The MLAs also expressed ire at Jyotiraditya Scindia and challenged him to get across the floor test. Congress MLA Dr Ashok said, “Our country is a democracy but some people are trying to run it as a monarchy. Efforts are being made to destabilize an elected government. This is dangerous for the country. Such efforts have been unsuccessfully made on four earlier occasions. We have the requisite numbers and are ready for the floor test.”
Another Congress MLA Sunil Saraf said, “If BJP is sure of its legislators why doesn’t it bring them to Bhopal. We are sure that the Congress legislators in Bangaluru will not prove themselves to be traitors.” Saraf added, “We have signed on the Rajya sabha nomination forms. There are no restrictions on us in the resort. Our phones are working.”
