The BJP is believed to have shifted some two-dozen of its Rajasthan MLAs to Gujarat, unsure of their loyalty in the run-up to the Assembly session where chief minister Ashok Gehlot of the Congress is likely to mount a bid to prove his majority.

Officially, however, the BJP denied they doubted the intentions of the MLAs and said they had gone to Gujarat, a state it rules, on an “excursion” and to offer prayers at the Somnath temple.

More than a dozen BJP legislators are said to be already in various places in Gujarat. On Saturday, another six were flown in a chartered flight from Jaipur to Porbandar.

The Rajasthan Assembly session is scheduled to commence on August 14 and chief minister Gehlot, battling a rebellion by 19 Congress MLAs led by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, could use it to prove his majority.

Gehlot has lodged the remaining MLAs of the Congress at a hotel in Jaisalmer, fearing poaching by the BJP.

“I’m very much aware of 12 MLAs of the party going for an excursion. Whenever the BJP legislature party meeting is held, the MLAs will be there,” Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia told news agency ANI on Saturday. “The BJP is intact. The Congress is spreading rumours,” he added.

Although Poonia claimed that only a dozen MLAs of the BJP had embarked on the “excursion”, sources said a dozen more were already in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

Against this backdrop, former chief minister and the BJP’s tallest leader in Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, was in Delhi on Friday. She met party chief J.P. Nadda and general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh.

BJP sources said Vasundhara had been called to Delhi for her views on the political crisis in Rajasthan and also to formulate the party’s strategy in the Assembly.
Vasundhara, the party insiders said, was not keen to pull down the Gehlot government, a view that is against the line pursued by the central leadership.