Will attend Assembly session if Congress issues whip, raise voice from within, say MLAs loyal to Sachin Pilot

Amidst the continuing political crisis in Rajasthan, at least one legislator loyal to the Sachin Pilot camp has said that he and other Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) loyal to the former deputy chief minister will attend the upcoming Assembly session if the Congress party issues a whip.

The Assembly session is set to be convened from August 14.

"We are with Sachin Pilot and will abide by whatever decision he takes. We have never spoken about leaving the Congress party. If the Congress issues a whip, I will definitely attend the Assembly session. We will raise our voice from within by being inside the party," Gajendra Singh Shaktawat, MLA from Vallabhnagar in Udaipur and one of the 18 legislators in the Pilot camp, told The Indian Express.

Shaktawat added that the whip however is valid only inside the Assembly and not for party meetings, which was a point of contention between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's camp and the Pilot camp.

"All we wanted was a change in leadership. A person who worked hard for six years to form the government in Rajasthan, you abuse him by calling him nikamma… This is a battle of self-respect," the legislator said while referring to Gehlot's 'nikamma, nakara' comment against Pilot.

"You are abusing your own family members. We have never spoken with anybody from the BJP. We don’t want to leave the Congress," Shaktawat added.

Meanwhile, another Congress legislator from the Pilot camp, Mukesh Bhakar, told the newspaper that he is loyal to the Congress ideology and does not plan on leaving the party for BJP.

Amidst the tussle between the two camps, MLAs loyal to the Gehlot camp were moved to Jaisalmer from Jaipur on July 31.

In the meantime, in Delhi, the Congress approached the Supreme Court against the Rajasthan High Court order restraining the assembly speaker from acting on the disqualification notices issued to Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs.