JAIPUR: In a relief for Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, battling the fallout post Sachin Pilot episode, the Bharatiya Tribal Party is likely to support the Congress government in case of a floor test in the assembly.
The BTP has only two MLAs in the 200-member Assembly. BTP’s national vice president Paresh Vasava pledged his party’s conditional support to Gehlot.
The party had earlier asked its two MLAs to stay neutral.
The fledgling BTP has a substantial following in the tribal belt of south Rajasthan which enabled it to win two seats in the last Assembly election in 2018.
Velaram Goghra, BTP’s Rajasthan chief, said the party has been giving issue-based support to the Congress and that if the government meets its demands, it will be supporting it in case of a floor test.
He said the party backed the Congress in the Rajya Sabha elections last month.
Goghra said the party’s demands include implementation of the Maharashtra model for the development of tribal areas in Rajasthan.
Under the model, funds for tribal development are given to a tribal commissioner instead of various departments.
“We are accountable to our people. We need to have an understanding with the government to get benefits of various schemes for our people,” he said.
BTP’s two MLAs were among 101 legislators who had attended the Congress legislature party meeting at a Jaipur hotel on Tuesday.
They later left the hotel saying they would take a call on support at an “appropriate” time. Interestingly, video clips of Rajkumar Roat, a BTP MLA, surfaced on social media on Tuesday, claiming the police were harassing him.
The video was circulated by the official WhatsApp group of Sachin Pilot.
Roat retracted on Wednesday, saying: “The incident was true, but it was a case of mistaken identity. They (police) did not recognise me. Both of us will abide by the party decision to support the Congress in the Assembly.”
The Congress claims support of 109 MLAs; while the majority mark is 101. The BJP has 72 MLAs while the Pilot camp claims support of 22 MLAs, including three Independents.