Hours after meeting Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said he hopes that the Governor will not come under "any pressure" and that an Assembly session shall be called soon.
Addressing the media, Gehlot said, "I am sure that Governor will not come under any pressure and he will make a decision on Assembly session soon. We hope the session begins soon and various issues can be discussed."
Calling the Governor a 'constitutional head', he said: "I do not hesitate to say that he couldn't have stopped the decision of calling (Assembly Session) without some pressure from the top. I have requested if he has any queries then it could have been solved. Why did he not decide yesterday? We have requested him again to make a decision soon. People are waiting."
He further said that along with party MLAs, he is sitting here in protest on the basis of Gandhian principle. "After he (Governor) gives us a letter, we will decide the further course of action," he added.
Earlier in the day, Congress MLAs supporting Rajasthan Chief Minister raised slogans at the Raj Bhawan after reports came to the fore that Mishra had denied convening the state Assembly session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If media reports are true about Governor saying that state Assembly session can't be conducted due to COVID-19, then we are ready to conduct COVID-19 tests of 200 MLAs," Raghu Sharma, Rajasthan Minister and Congress leader said.
The Chief Minister met the Governor on Friday afternoon over the issue of the convening of the Assembly session.
Chief Minister Gehlot, earlier, alleged that colleagues, apparently referring to Congress MLAs from the Sachin Pilot camp, have been held hostages in Haryana under the BJP's supervision.
"Some of our colleagues have been kept as hostages in Haryana under BJP's supervision. Everybody knows that. It may be possible they don't want to be there. They are our own colleagues," he said at a press conference.
Rajasthan plunged into a political crisis as differences between Pilot and Gehlot came out in the open.
Later, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi sent disqualification notices to Pilot and 18 MLAs under the anti-defection law after the chief whip's application for their disqualification.
The MLAs were earlier asked to present before the Assembly Speaker on July 17, but the same was deferred in view of the hearing before the High Court.
Pilot and the 18 MLAs have approached the Rajasthan High Court against the disqualification notices issued against them.
The High Court had asked Speaker Joshi to defer the proceedings pending before him on the disqualification notices issued to Pilot and the MLAs of his faction and put off the verdict on the matter till July 24.
( With inputs from ANI )