Ahmedabad: After 6 Congress MLAs left the party in Gujarat ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha election, Congress flew several of its remaining MLAs outside the state to prevent, what they call, horse-trading.
“To ensure BJP is not successful, 44 of us Congress MLAs are leaving from Gujarat for Bengaluru,” Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar had said.
“To hide their failure, BJP is trying to make sure our MLAs resign by offering money and through police pressure,” he said.
In the end 4 MLAs stayed back in Gujarat, but 40 have landed in Bengaluru, in Karnataka. They will stay at Eagleton resort.
The Congress, which had 57 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly, has accused the BJP of using money, muscle and state power in Gujarat to engineer defections.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi warned MLAs of the “serious consequences” of anti-defection and anti-corruption laws that could bar them from contesting elections for up to six years and lead to imprisonment of up to seven years.
He recalled court judgements that termed defections a “constitutional sin” and unprincipled defections a “social evil”.
“Crores of rupees have been spent in horse-trading in Gujarat by the BJP. You have seen this naked drama… The policy of the BJP in Gujarat is – by hook or by crook, come to power by breaking all laws,” Singhvi said.
For the three Rajya Sabha seats of Gujarat, BJP has fielded Amit Shah and Smriti Irani while the Congress has, for the third seat in the state, once again backed Ahmed Patel, the political secretary of Sonia Gandhi.
The defections may have a bearing on the election for this seat.
Singhvi alleged Congress Gujarat MLA Punabhai Gamit was offered Rs 10 crore by the BJP. Singhvi also accused the BJP of adopting unlawful measures and, with the use of money and power, forcing the Congress MLAs to switch sides and quit the Assembly.
Bureau Report
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