As political activity heats up around the Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan , with Congress MLAs sequestered in resorts in Jaipur amid allegations of horse-trading against the BJP, its State chief Satish Poonia has accused Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of making baseless allegations aimed at “strengthening his own position vis a vis Congress’ inner politics.” He also demanded proof from the Congress of any offer of money made to its MLAs by the BJP.
Speaking to The Hindu over telephone, Mr. Poonia was very clear that his party was not making any offers of money to Congress MLAs to vote for his party’s second candidate (Onkar Singh Lakahawat) for the three seats going to the polls next week.
The Assembly has 200 seats, with the Congress having 107 MLAs plus the counted support of 13 MLAs (independents, plus Rashtriya Lok Dal). As per calculations, a candidate would need 51 first preference votes to win. Going by that, the Congress should not have a problem getting its candidates- AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi- elected.
“We have 24 surplus votes and if we have put up a second candidate what is the problem?” said Mr. Poonia. “Just as Ashok Gehlot insists that many rebels who won on other party ticket may vote for the Congress, rebels from our party who still have ideological commitments to the BJP may vote for us.”
“Where is the proof of this allegation, hawa main aarop lagana [making allegations out of thin air] is easy,” he said.
“The fact is that the State Assembly elections were fought on the ambitions of both Mr. Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin pilot. Mr. Gehlot won over the high command and Mr. Pilot got left out despite campaigns that said he would be the chief minister if the party won. Since then, several senior MLAs and Ministers of the Congress have been marginalised and sidelined. One Minister actually demanded Voluntary Retirement Scheme [VRS] for himself on the floor of the Assembly due to the neglect he felt. These allegations are thus to paint Mr. Gehlot in the light of a ‘saviour’ and Mr. Pilot as troublemaker in front of the high command in Delhi,” he said. “By targeting the BJP, the game is to improve one person’s image and dent another’s,” he stated.
