Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday, said that he is proud of his MLAs who dismissed offers of money and appointment by the BJP and blamed the BJP of engineering a coup in state similar to that in Madhya Pradesh.

Gehlot said that some MLAs were ferried to a resort in Jaipur ahead of the elections to three seats of the Rajya Sabha scheduled on June 19. Pointing to a hefty transfer of money to Jaipur, CM Gehlot said that some of the MLAs were offered a whopping Rs 25 crore in cash with Rs 10 crore in advance.

‘But, the party MLAs were alert and united,’ he said, highlighting that the condition of those who quit the Congress to join the BJP was not good.

He also lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the Rajya Sabha elections were delayed because the BJP could not poach MLAs in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

In Gujarat, ahead of Rajya Sabha elections, Congress’ Akshay Patel, Jitu Chaudhary and Brijesh Merja had resigned as legislators.

MLAs Pravin Maru, Pradyumnasinh Jadeja, Soman Patel, J.V. Kakidia, and Mangal Gavit had resigned early in March.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said no one in Congress will defect before the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh adding that the MLAs who wanted to quit the Congress had already done so in Madhya Pradesh, referring to Jyotiraditya Scindia and his followers.

Congress’ national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said ‘repeated assassination of public mandate’ has become the BJP’s character.

‘The BJP’s conspiracy in Rajasthan will not succeed. The Congress MLAs are fearless; therefore, they are not going to fall into any temptation and the BJP will get the right reply through democracy,’ he said.

Alleging an attempt to poach the party MLAs backing the government, chief whip Mahesh Joshi forwarded a complaint to the DG, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), seeking action against ‘identified’ elements for corrupt conduct and attempts for destabilising the government.

‘It has come to my knowledge that like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, attempts are being made to destabilise the government in Rajasthan,’ Joshi said in the complaint.

ACB DG Alok Tripathi assured that action will be taken on the complaint.

The Logical Indian Take

These political developments and attempts at horse trading in Rajasthan come at a time when the state is reeling under the deadly COVID-19 crisis that has infected at least 11,245 people and claimed over 250 lives in the state.

The Rajasthan government, already struggling to mitigate the ongoing health crisis, has decided to park its MLAs in resort. The opposition is allegedly offering money to the tune of Rs 25 cr to buy MLAs.

While healthcare infrastructure is collapsing, economy is tanking, migrants are going hungry, governance has taken a backseat in Rajasthan.

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