Gehlot in trouble? Rajasthan CM & KC Venugopal to meet MLAs amid poaching claim versus BJP

Ahead of the elections to the three Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan, the Congress MLAs will meet again at 5 pm on Thursday at Shiv Vilas Resort in Jaipur amid poaching allegations against BJP. The meeting will be chaired by CM Ashok Gehlot and General Secretary KC Venugopal to understand the situation on the ground level.

'They had not completed the buying & selling'

On Wednesday, Gehlot made allegations of horse-trading against the BJP and asserted that "everyone is united" in his party. "Election (Rajya Sabha) is here. It could have been conducted two months back but they had not completed the buying and selling in Gujarat and Rajasthan, so they delayed it. The election is going to be conducted now and the situation is the same," Gehlot alleged.

"How long will you do politics by indulging in horse-trading? It will not be surprising if Congress gives them a jolt in the time to come. The public can understand everything. Today's meeting was very fruitful. Everyone is united, we'll meet again tomorrow," the Chief Minister told reporters. 

Earlier in the day, Congress' national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who arrived in Jaipur to attend the meeting of the Congress MLAs and Independent legislators, said 'repeated assassination' of the public mandate has become the BJP's character.

"The BJP's conspiracy in Rajasthan will not succeed," he said, adding that the Congress MLAs are "fearless", therefore, they are not going to fall into any temptation and the BJP will get the "right reply" through democracy. Stressing that the party has an absolute majority, he said no one can "defeat the public mandate or democracy".

'They do not trust their MLAs'

On the other hand, state BJP president Satish Poonia said the Congress in Rajasthan is "feeling insecure". "Their own house is not in order. They do not trust their MLAs," Poonia added.

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Three Rajya Sabha seats of Rajasthan are up for election which is scheduled to take place on June 19. The Congress has 107 MLAs, including six from BSP who changed camps last year. The party has the support of 12 of the 13 Independent MLAs in the 200 members assembly.

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The Congress has nominated KC Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi for the elections while the BJP has fielded Rajendra Gehlot and Onkar Singh Lakhawat.

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