Jaipur: A technically correct decision, calling the Rajasthan assembly in session from September 19, has become a political issue in the state.
The opposition BJP is alleging that the state government is bypassing the Governor and is depriving the opposition of the opportunity to ask questions by continuing the Budget session, as many of the MLAs have exhausted their quota of questions.
The Ashok Gehlot government has called the Rajasthan Assembly session from September 19. This will be a continuation of the Budget session that was started in February this year, and was postponed indefinitely on March 28.
The state government needs the Governor’s nod to call the assembly into session. However, the government has not sent the file for the prorogation of the assembly to the Governor, and so technically, the government does not need the approval of the Governor to call the session.
The BJP is strongly opposing it, and has accused the government of bypassing the Governor.
The MLA and spokesperson of the party Ramlal Sharma said that using technical grounds the government has once again tried to bypass the Governor which is highly condemnable. He added that the government is depriving the MLAs to ask questions during Question Hour, as most of the MLAs have nearly exhausted their quota of questions.
"We are planning a strategy to counter this decision. The senior leaders of the party are discussing the issue," said Sharma.
This is the second time the Gehlot government has used this ‘technical’ ground to call the assembly session without involving the Governor.
In fact, at the time of the political crisis of July 2020, the calling of the assembly session had become a big issue, as Gehlot wanted to call the session to prove his majority. However, Governor Kalraj Mishra did not allow this on technical grounds and CM Gehlot had to protest outside the Governor House with his ministers and MLAs.
Later in 2021, the Gehlot government for the first time did not send the proposal of prorogation of the assembly to the Governor and continued the Budget session. The very same practice is being used this time.
Addressing the allegations made by the BJP, the Deputy Chief Whip of the Congress, Mahendra Choudhary, said, "What we are doing is according to the provisions and rules. There is nothing wrong in this and allegations are baseless."
