Jaipur: In a politically significant development in Rajasthan that also comes as a major setback for Mayawati, all six BSP MLAs on Monday night wrote to state assembly Speaker C P Joshi to merge the legislative party with the Congress.
MLAs Rajendra Singh Gudha, Jogendra Singh Awana, Wajib Ali, Lakhan Singh Meena, Sandeep Yadav and Deepchand said they were merging their legislative party with the Congress. "All the six BSP MLAs were in constant touch with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and today they have came into the fold of the Congress," a Congress leader said.
The turncoat BSP leaders claimed that the decision was taken as a step to fight communal faces and with a perspective of joining hands in the development of the state.
"We took a decision in order to fight against communal forces and to work for the development of the state and stability of the government. Ashok ji is the best Chief Minister and no one can be better than him for Rajasthan. I was impressed with his style of working and polity," news agency ANI quoted Udaipurwati lawmaker Rajendra Gudd.
Saying that it was difficult for them to support Congress from outside, Nadbai MLA Jogendra Singh Awana said, "We have given our resignations letter and also met CP Joshi ji and Ashok ji today. There were several challenges in front of us. On one hand, we were supporting Congress for the development of the state and on the other, we were fighting against them in elections. We all gave a thought to it. We took a decision in favour of the state."
The Rajasthan Assembly has 200 seats. The Congress has 100 MLAs and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has one MLA, giving it the majority to run the government. The Congress has also the outside support of 12 out of total 13 independent MLAs. Two seats are vacant.
In 2009, during Gehlot's earlier tenure, all the six BSP MLAs had also defected to Congress. That time, the government was five short of a clear majority.
With inputs from PTI
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