Bahujan Samaj Party issues whip to 6 defector MLAs in Rajasthan

• The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has issued a whip to its erstwhile MLAs to vote against the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan in case a floor test is held during the Assembly session that will begin on Friday.
• The six BSP MLAs had merged with the Congress last year. The BSP has termed it illegal.
• The whip has been issued by party General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has issued a whip to its erstwhile MLAs to vote against the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan in case a floor test is held during the Assembly session that will begin on Friday.

The six BSP MLAs had merged with the Congress last year. The BSP has termed it illegal.

The whip has been issued by party General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra. He has directed the six MLAs to vote as per the whip issued under section 2(1)(a) of the Tenth schedule or face disqualification proceeding under 2(1)(b) of the tenth schedule.

The matter also came up before the Supreme Court but did not pass any order since the matter was already pending before the Rajasthan High Court.

The petitioner in the court contended that the Assembly elections were held in Rajasthan on December 7, 2018 in which the six MLAs were elected on tickets issued by the BSP.

The six MLAs -- Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha -- later defected to the Congress in September 2019.

After the truce with Sachin Pilot, the Congress government is safe in numbers as the party has more than the required majority. At the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting, the two camps shook hands in the presence of the party observers.

The two leaders Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot met before the CLP meeting in Gehlot's house.

At the meeting, Gehlot gave a call to forget the past, saying, "'Apne tau apne hote hain'. We could have proved majority on the floor of the House even without these 19 MLAs, but then there would have been no happiness around."

Gehlot further said, "We will move the confidence motion ourselves. We shall also resolve the grievances of our MLAs who are annoyed with us."

The BJP on Thursday announced that it will move a no-confidence motion against the Gehlot government when the special Assembly session commences.

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