JAIPUR: A day after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused the BJP of eying horse-trading in a bid to deny the Congress the third Rajya Sabha seat from the state, ‘resort politics’ is back in play in the state to prevent poaching of MLAs for cross-voting in the June 10 election.
The Congress on Wednesday decided to shift its MLAs to a hotel in Udaipur. Independents and MLAs belonging to other parties who are supporting the Gehlot government will also be shifted to Udaipur. The MLAs will stay in the same hotel where the Congress party’s Chintan Shivir was held last month.
Sources said the Congress is also sending its MLAs from neighbouring Haryana to insulate them from the BJP. The decision to move the MLAs to a ‘safe zone’ came a day after media baron Subhash Chandra of the Zee, who is backed by the BJP, entered the Rajya Sabha poll fray as an Independent candidate, filing his nomination on the last day.
There are four RS vacancies in Rajasthan. The BJP, which has the numbers to win one seat, has named former minister Ghanshyam Tiwari as its candidate while the Congress has fielded Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari.
The Congress, which has 108 MLAs in the state Assembly, is sure to win two seats after which it will have 26 surplus votes, 15 short of the required 41 to win the third seat. Gehlot and the Congress candidates had on Tuesday held a meeting with 10 of 13 independent MLAs. The Congress also claims to have the backing of some smaller parties. But if the Congress legislators cross-vote, Independent MLAs decide to vote for Chandra, who is set to get BJP’s 30 surplus votes, it will queer the pitch for the Congress.