Congress MLAs reach Jaipur, shifted to another hotel

Jaipur, Jun 9 (PTI) Rajasthan Congress MLAs and Independent legislators supporting the party on Thursday reached here from Udaipur, where they were lodged in a resort amid fears of horse trading ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.

After arriving at the international airport here, the MLAs were taken in a bus to Leela Hotel on the Jaipur-New Delhi highway. They will be taken to the state Assembly directly from there on Friday.

The elections to four seats of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan are scheduled for Friday.

The ruling Congress in the state has accused the BJP of horse-trading attempts and had shifted its MLAs to the luxury Taj Aravali resort and spa in Udaipur on June 2.

After arriving here, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the Congress will win three seats and they are expecting such results that the BJP in future doesn't try to indulge in horse trading.

"Our family is united and we are going to win all three seats," he asserted.

Replying to a question that BJP legislators are alleging that the Congress is making compromises to keep its flock together, Gehlot said, "They are so intimidated that they went to the Election Commission and the ED. What is the logic of going to the ED." Gehot said this referring to the BJP’s complaint to both bodies, alleging poaching attempts by the Congress.

Gehlot also met CPI (M) MLA Balwan Poonia at a hospital to know about his health and wished him speedy recovery.

The Congress has fielded Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari and Randeep Surjewala for the polls while the BJP has chosen as its official candidate former minister Ghanshyam Tiwari, who earlier was an open critic of former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje.

The Congress and the BJP are set to comfortably win two and one seats, respectively.

Media baron Subhash Chandra has made the contest interesting by entering the fray as a BJP-backed independent candidate. Chandra’s entry prompted Congress to allege horse-trading attempts and the party shifted its MLAs to the Udaipur hotel, an exercise that was done during the previous Rajya Sabha elections in 2020 also.

This time, the MLAs were taken to Udaipur instead of keeping them in a hotel in Jaipur itself.

The BJP also shifted its MLAs to a hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur on June 6 in the name of a "training camp".

Amid allegations over horse trading, Subhash Chandra increased worries of the ruling party on Tuesday by claiming that eight MLAs will cross vote in his favour and he will win the seat.

The Congress currently has 108 legislators in the 200-member state Assembly and needs 123 votes to win three seats. The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) with two MLAs has extended support to it.

The Congress is also claiming the support of 13 Independents and one Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA, who is currently a state minister.

On the other hand, the BJP has 71 MLAs. After the victory of its party candidate, the BJP will be left with 30 surplus votes, which will go to Subhash Chandra.

Three MLAs of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) too have extended support to Chandra, who needs eight more seats to win the elections.

There are 10 seats of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and currently the BJP has seven and the Congress three MPs.

The elections to the four seats are taking place as BJP's Omprakash Mathur, K J Alphons, Ramkumar Verma and Harshardhan Singh Dungarpur are going to complete their term on July 4.

The other other three Rajya Sabha MPs of the BJP are Kirodi Lal, Bhupendra Yadav (Union minister) and Rajendra Gehlot.

The Congress Rajya Sabha MPs from Rajasthan are former PM Manmohan Singh, party general Secretary K C Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi.