In Porbandar, Nirmal Kumavat told the media that the congressional government in Rajasthan was “harassing” members of the opposition community (Twitter @ minimal).
Six MLAs from the Rajasthan BJP who arrived in Somnath late Saturday, left for an undisclosed location early Sunday, even as local BJP leaders said they were unaware of the lawmakers’ move.
The MLAs, Nirmal Kumawat, Gopichand Meena, Jabbar Singh Sankhla, Dharamveer Mochi, Gopal Lal Sharma, and Gurdeep Singh Shahpini, arrived in Porbandar on a chartered flight from Jaipur on Saturday and headed to Somnath near Veraval in Gir Somnath district to perform darshan on the Somnath. temple.
The MLAs stayed at Sagar Darshan Atithigruh, a VVIP guesthouse run by the Shree Somnath Trust (SST), the religious organization that maintains and manages the temple.
“The MLAs had dinner at Sagar Darshan, where they were housed and searched on Sunday morning,” said Vijaysinh Chavda, general manager of SST.
At present, BJP leaders are in control of SST, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Interior Minister Amit Shah, and party veteran LK Advani are among its members.
In Porbandar, Kumavat told the media that the congressional government in Rajasthan was “harassing” members of the opposition community and that they came to receive Lord Shiva’s darshan in Somnath to escape the alleged harassment. He added that they were going to stay in Somnath for a couple of days.
Ashok Gehlot’s government in Rajasthan is in crisis after the rebellion of Sachin Pilot, who was Senior Deputy Minister and Chairman of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congressional Committee.
Pilot, who claims the support of 17 MLAs, was removed from the twin posts even as Chief Minister Gehlot claims he enjoys majority support in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly. The BJP of the Opposition has 71 MLA.
Kumawat alleged that the congressional government was falsely implicating opposition ALMs in criminal cases and was “trying to pressure them to vote for Congress” when conducting a floor test. The Rajasthan Assembly session is scheduled to begin on August 14.
However, local BJP leaders said they did not know the whereabouts of the six MLAs. “My duty was to receive them at the Somnath temple. We did it accordingly and after they had dinner, I left, ”said Punit Sharma, general secretary of the BJP’s Junagadh city unit.
Babu Bokhiria, former Minister of Fisheries and current Porbandar MLA BJP, also said he was not aware of the travel plans of visiting MLAs.
“We met them at Porbandar airport and then we said goodbye to Somnath. In Somnath, Punit Sharma would take care of them, ”said Bokhiria.
The Porbandar MLA had said on Saturday that another batch of six Rajasthan MLA would land in Porbandar on Sunday morning. But on Sunday he said they did not land and he had no further information about it.
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