Express News Service
JAIPUR: With voting for Rajya Sabha elections just three days away, the Congress and the BJP are taking no chances in Rajasthan. While Congress is more comfortably placed than a week ago, it is still facing trouble from two Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) MLAs who are staying away from Udaipur and do not plan to vote for the Congress unless demands related to tribal people are met. Meanwhile, the BJP has also herded all its MLAs to a hotel near Jaipur. While a victory for its official candidate is more or less certain, for the saffron party it will be a setback if Independent candidate Subhash Chandra whom the party has backed is unable to win.
Many MLAs who were strong with Chief Minister Gehlot during the crisis created by former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot’s revolt two years ago are now adamant to get their demands fulfilled. Prominent among these are the two tribal MLAS of BTP, Rajkumar Roat and Ram Prasad Dindor who have put up a set of conditions instead of giving support before the Rajya Sabha elections. Apart from the demands related to tribal areas, the BTP MLAs have demanded the withdrawal of cases related to the Kankari Dungri movement. The BTP MLAs have said that support will be considered only after their demands are met – as of now their policy is to wait and watch. BTP MLAs had supported CM Gehlot even during the earlier Rajya Sabha elections and the rebellion of the Sachin Pilot camp. They had twice been herded along with Congress MLAs but this time they are far away. Leaders close to the CM are busy persuading the BTP MLAs.
Out of 13 Independent MLAs supporting the government, 12 have reached the Udaipur resort. Only Baljeet Yadav, Independent MLA from Behror, is angry and is not ready to go to the barricade in Udaipur. He has reportedly put up strict conditions to vote for the Congress in exchange for votes, without fulfilling which they have refused to vote. Yadav has asked the Gehlot government to implement a 75 per cent reservation of the youth of Rajasthan in all jobs but the government has refused this reservation of local youth in private sector employment.
It is being said that a meeting of the Congress legislature party will be held in a day or two. In this meeting, Pawan Kumar Bansal, the election in charge on behalf of AICC, T S Singh Deo and all three Rajya Sabha candidates Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari will be present.
While Congress MLAs stay at a Five Star Hotel in Udaipur, from Monday, the BJP has also herded its MLAs to a five-star hotel in Jamdoli near Jaipur. BJP has named it a training camp where all party MLAs will stay till June 10.
A training session was held for MLAs at the state BJP headquarters on Monday afternoon which state President Satish Poonia, Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria along with former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also attended. The MLAs who participated in it were soon sent to the Five Star hotel Devi Ratan in Jamdoli on the outskirts of Jaipur till voting for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria said that this time the Rajya Sabha elections are going to be very interesting as there is a tussle going on in Congress itself. “The Chief Minister does not have faith in his MLAs. That’s why he is keeping them imprisoned since June 2. Independent MLAs have also distanced themselves from the government. We not only have full hope but are confident that this time BJP candidates will register a victory in 2 seats,” said Kataria.
Voting for 4 seats of the Rajya Sabha will be held on June 10. This time 5 candidates are in the fray in Rajasthan. The contest has become a keen one due to the standing of BJP-backed independent candidate Subhash Chandra. The victory of Congress in 2 seats and BJP in one seat is certain, but for the fourth seat, both the parties need the support of Independents and MLAs of smaller parties. Given the close contest and fears of horse-trading, MLAs from across the state will stay away from the general public till the polls are held on June 10.
