Rajasthan: BSP demands six MLAs who defected to Cong be barred from voting in RS polls

On Wednesday, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) wrote to Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra and Assembly Speaker CP Joshi demanding that the six-party MLAs who defected to the Congress be barred from voting in the Rajya Sabha polls. State BSP president Bhagwan Singh Baba, in the letter, stated a case under the Anti-Defection Law is going on against the MLAs in the Supreme Court.

Baba said in the letter, "In such a situation, these six MLAs should be stopped from voting in the Rajya Sabha elections because the BSP has decided that it will not support any party or independent in the Rajya Sabha elections."

State Congress head Govind Singh Dotasra said the six MLAs merged with the grand old party and now they are party legislators. The names of the six MLAs who joined Congress in the month of September 2019 are Rajendra Gudha, Lakhan Meena, Deepchand Kheria, Sandeep Yadav, Joginder Awana and Wajib Ali. Currently, the Sonia Gandhi-led party has 108 MLAs. 

The elections for four seats of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan will be held on June 10. The Congress party has fielded three candidates for the upcoming elections, while the ruling BJP party has fielded one. BJP's candidate is Ghanshyam Tiwari, who is a former minister of the Vasundhara Raje cabinet. For the upcoming election, Congress has decided to shift its MLAs in Rajasthan to a Udaipur hotel, and several party sources have said that they fear the saffron party will poach them ahead of June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, as per PTI. 

CM Gehlot takes dig at BJP as Subhash Chandra files nomination as an independent candidate

The national decades-old party's move comes a day after satellite TV pioneer and the chairperson of the Essel Group, Subhash Chandra, who is backed by the BJP, filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls. His decision to file papers as an independent candidate had prompted Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to allege that the saffron party wants to indulge in horse-trading. CM Ashok Gehlot termed the move 'an old trick' by the ruling BJP party which is destined to fail as it did 15 years ago.