Jaipur: After two MLAs in Gujarat resigned recently from the Congress before the Rajya Sabha elections, Rajasthan too seems to be feeling the political turbulence with Rajya Sabha polls approaching.
The interesting political story came out on Thursday when Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused BJP of trying to destabilise his government too after toppling the government in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
The CM in his statement said, “BJP follows one policy – to buy MLAs and to bring them under their fold. Even in Rajasthan, such attempts are being made. However, I will strongly fight all these attempts,” he said.
It was a surprising statement coming from Gehlot as, earlier, he has been confident standing strong on the support his party enjoys in Rajasthan. However, his recent statement stirred a hornet’s nest in the state.
While BJP came out strongly to oppose the allegations, there were silent whispers in Congress over reasons why the CM made this statement.
A senior Congress leader on conditions of anonymity said, “The CM seems to be worried looking at BJP’s successful show in MP and now in Gujarat. Further, the rival party is also playing its cards in Rajasthan as it has nominated its second candidate, Omkar Singh Lakhawat for Rajya Sabha election which is being held to fill three vacant posts in the state.”
Congress has already nominated its two candidates Neeraj Dangi and KC Venugopal and initially Congress had fielded Rajendra Gehlot as its official candidate.
Congress enjoys the support of 107 MLAs in the 200-member assembly while BJP stands at 72. The independents and others account for 21. To win one Rajya Sabha seat, each party needs 51 votes. So going with numbers, Congress can easily win two seats while one seat will go into BJP kitty. But with BJP nominating Lakhawat too, there can be trouble coming for Congress, said a Congress worker adding that the party is not too happy with the fielding of Dangi who has been a constant loser in earlier elections.
Meanwhile, the BJP state president Satish Poonia has come out strongly against the CM’s statement and questioned, “Why should BJP try to destabilise the state government when there is already many internal tussles going on within Congress party since day one of the formation of its government in the state?”
He further said, “Today the Congress government in Rajasthan is talking of democracy but it was this party and its government which imposed the Emergency and Article 356. The allegations on BJP for destabilising the government are baseless. The CM should set his own house in order first,” he told IANS.
Meanwhile, speculation is rife in the state with Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh garnering BJP’s support on his Twitter handle after extending support to Prime Minister’s Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign. Many of his tweets are being endorsed by BJP leaders.
Also, Singh’s strong links with Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot are well known.
On Thursday too, his pinned tweet termed Pilot as the biggest ambassador for Rajasthan. He retweeted his video where Pilot was seen tying a ‘safaa’ showing support on #safawithtwittercampaign.
His earlier tweet also showed him enjoying tea with Pilot.
With these tweets going viral, there are questions being raised if politically something big is about to happen in the desert state.
