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Jaipur: The Rajasthan Congress on Sunday filed a complaint with the state’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB), asking it to prevent any attempt of horse-trading of legislators ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections.

Mahesh Joshi, Congress chief whip in the state assembly, submitted a complaint in this regard with ACB director general of police (DGP) BL Soni on Sunday.

Also Read | Congress appoints 5 observers for 3 states as Rajya Sabha poll contest hots up

“There is a possibility of horse-trading and so I have submitted a written complaint with the ACB to remain alert and to make such attempts unsuccessful,” Joshi told reporters after meeting Soni. “The government will lodge complaint with the Election Commission also, if needed.”

The Congress has not named any individual or party in the complaint, he said.

“We have not named any particular person in the complaint but it has been done so that ACB remains alert... We will not tolerate any kind of corruption and horse-trading,” the senior leader said.

“Through social media and other ways, there is an apprehension that money power can be used in the Rajya Sabha polls, which will be held on June 10,” Joshi said in his complaint to the ACB.

The elections to 57 seats in the Upper House of Parliament, spread across 15 states and Union territories, will be held on June 10. Four of these seats are from Congress-ruled Rajasthan.

The Congress has fielded three candidates — Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala, and Pramod Tiwari. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named former state minister Ghanshyam Tiwari as its candidate and decided to support businessman Subhash Chandra’s candidature as an independent. The ruling Congress, with 108 MLAs in the assembly, is set to win two of the four seats outright, and the BJP is set to win one.

The Congress will then have 26 surplus votes, but 15 short of the required 41 to win the third seat. The BJP, which has 71 MLAs, will be left with 30 surplus votes after securing its seat. There are 13 independents in the assembly, with the Communist Party of India (CPI) having two seats, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) three, the Bharatiya Tribal Party two, and the Rashtriya Lok Dal one.

Congress legislators have been lodged in Udaipur’s Taj Aravali hotel, where the party had held its Chintan Shivir last month, as resort politics — a familiar trend in recent years to prevent poaching attempts by other parties — resumed ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, the six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators, who joined the Congress, on Sunday reached Udaipur after holding an hour-long meeting with Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday night, said MLA Sanyam Lodha, an advisor to the CM.

On Saturday, the Rajasthan unit of BSP issued whip asking the six MLAs to vote for the independent candidate instead of the Congress and the BJP.

Also Read | BSP directs Rajasthan MLAs to vote for Independent Subhash Chandra in Rajya Sabha polls

“The MLAs… had stood by the Congress during the political crisis in 2020, then how could the BJP or the candidate supported by them expect that they will support them,” Gehlot told reporters in Udaipur.

The MLAs who won on a BSP ticket had joined the Congress to give a stable government in the state without any condition, he added.

“Congress will win all the three seats comfortably. We have failed their horse-trading conspiracy in the past, this time also, you will see on the evening of June 10 that whatever conspiracies are going on for horse-trading, they will not be of any use,” said the chief minister.

On Saturday night, Gehlot met Rajendra Gudha, Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Lakhan Meena, Girraj Singh Malinga and Khiladi Lal Bairwa.

“Every legislator has his own problem. They had minor resentment and now they have come along,” said Gehlot.

On submitting a complaint with the ACB, Gehlot said it has been done as the independent candidate supported by the BJP is an industrialist. “As an independent candidate, how will he get the votes...,” Gehlot said.

The BJP on Sunday said horse-trading and hoarding MLAs are practices that the Congress follows.

“It is they who are hoarding MLAs and doing pressure politics, but leveling baseless charges on the BJP. All such practices of horse-trading and hoarding are practices of the Congress and not the BJP,” said Vasudev Devnani, senior BJP leader and former minister.

After formation of the state government, the Congress merged BSP MLAs, pressurised the independents and even lodged sedition cases against their own MLAs and later withdrew them to create fear, the BJP leader added.

Sachin Saini is Special Correspondent for Rajasthan. He covers politics, tourism, forest, home, panchayati raj and rural development, and development journalism. ...view detail

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