Barely four months after the Congress regime won a confidence vote on the floor of the Rajasthan Assembly, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making renewed attempts to topple his government. Mr. Gehlot charged Home Minister Amit Shah with holding “secret meetings” with Congress MLAs earlier this year.
“Our MLAs told me after meeting with Amit Shah and [Petroleum Minister] Dharmendra Pradhan that they were ashamed to see Mr. Shah as the Home Minister. There was a time when Sardar [Vallabhbhai] Patel was the Home Minister, and now it is him,” Mr. Gehlot said, while virtually inaugurating the Congress party’s office at Sheoganj in Sirohi district.
Mr. Gehlot said BJP leaders were giving assurances to Congress MLAs that they had “pulled down five different governments and this [Rajasthan] would be the sixth”. “The BJP has been conspiring like this. It resorts to unethical acts because it is blinded by the greed for power,” he remarked.
The Gehlot government was on the brink of collapse in July this year after a rebel group of 19 MLAs, led by the then deputy CM Sachin Pilot, had threatened to pull support. Mr. Gehlot had held the BJP responsible for the episode and accused the party of attempting to destabilise his government at that time as well.
The month-long uncertainty created by the rebellion within the ruling party’s ranks ended on August 14, when the government won the vote of confidence in a special session of the Assembly. Dissident MLAs returned to the party fold following the top leadership’s promise to appoint a committee to hear and address their grievances.
Reacting to Mr. Gehlot’s charge, BJP State president Satish Poonia said the Chief Minister had depicted his maansik vichalan (mental deviation) because of his “failure to provide good governance” during the last two years. Mr. Poonia took strong exception to the reference made to Mr. Shah and said the allegations made without any evidence had violated political ethics.
