JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that the Rajya Sabha polls were postponed for two months at the behest of the BJP brass to enable the party to buy time for horse-trading in the state, even as he claimed that the two candidates put up by the Congress will emerge victorious.
Accusing the BJP leadership of using money power in a bid to topple his government, Gehlot said at a press conference, “What happened in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh is known to all, and now it is being tried here in Rajasthan… At a time when people are battling the corona pandemic, instead of resolving the crisis through effective governance these leaders are focused on buying and selling of MLAs.”
The government also filed a complaint with Rajasthan Police regarding the ‘organised crime of money transfer’ in an attempt to lure Congress MLAs to cross-vote in the RS polls.
The investigation has been handed over to the Special Operations Group.
A 100-odd Congress and supporting MLAs are currently holed up in two resorts in Jaipur as the party seeks to keep its flock together ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.
Congress Chief Whip in the Assembly, Mahesh Joshi, has already lodged a case with the anti-corruption bureau.
At the press conference, the Congress put up a united front with Deputy CM Sachin Pilot asserting that “our MLAs, independents and supporters are all fully backing us”.
Congres national spokesperson R S Surjewala said the MLAs wanted to stick together and that’s why they had been staying in the resorts.
“If thieves come to your house to commit theft, you have to safeguard your house,”he quipped.
Responding to the horse-trading charge, state BJP chief Satish Poonia said, “Charges against the BJP are baseless. If they have any evidence, why don’t these Congress leaders produce it in public?”