Gehlot-loyalist MLAs threaten to resign ahead of CLP meet to pick his successor
Jaipur, Sep 25: High drama unfolded in Rajasthan Sunday evening as a group of Congress MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot headed to the assembly speaker's residence to submit their resignation ahead of a legislature party meeting which was likely to pick his successor.
The development suggested a worsening power struggle between the chief minister and Sachin Pilot who was tipped to be Gehlot's replacement after he declared his candidature for the Congress president's post.
Congress observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken, along with Gehlot, reached the chief minister's residence where the Congress Legislature Party meeting was to be held. Pilot reached there separately. About 25 legislators were present there, sources said.
However, a large group of MLAs loyal to the chief minister who held a meeting at Minister Shanti Dhariwal's residence decided to go to Speaker C P Joshi's residence to submit their resignation.
"We are going to the speaker's residence in a bus and will submit our resignation," state minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told reporters.
Sources claimed there were around 80 MLAs, including Independents, in the group.
Some of its MLAs said Gehlot's successor should be someone who was instrumental in saving the government during the political crisis in 2020 and not someone who was involved in the bid to topple it, a veiled reference to Pilot.
Another leader, Govind Ram Meghwal, said Gehlot can shoulder both roles, that of the chief minister as well as the party's national president.
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UP: Three killed, one injured in road accident in Kannauj
Kannauj (UP), Mar 11 (PTI): Three people were killed and one person was injured in an accident involving a tractor trolley and two motorcycles on the national highway here, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place on National Highway 24 near Atara village at around 11 pm on Tuesday.
According to Sadar Kotwali Station House Officer Jitendra Pratap Singh, a farmer from Mawai village was returning home on a tractor-trolley when it collided with a motorcycle near Atara village in Jalalpur Panwara area.
The impact of the collision was so severe that it threw the two riders onto the road, killing them on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Ahad (20) and Arbaaz (16), both residents of Inayatpur village.
A man identified as Raju, a resident of Mawai village, was also injured in the accident and was admitted to the district hospital.
After the collision, the tractor driver lost control of the vehicle, which overturned onto another motorcycle, killing its rider Amit (36), a resident of Chhibramau, on the spot.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, police said.
