On the 29th of July, Ms. Mayawati, the President of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) filed a writ petition in Rajasthan High Court.
The petition was filed against the merger of 6 BSP Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) with the Indian National Congress (INC) in Rajasthan.
The petition was a day after the BSP issued notice to it’s MLAs to vote against the ruling INC, if the trust vote takes place.
On the 28th of July, The BSP issued the whip to R. Gudha, Lakhan Singh, Deep Chand, J.S.Awana, Sandeep Kumar and Wajib Ali.
Satish Chandra, the National General Secretary of the BSP in Rajasthan, said, “Notices have been issued to the six MLAs separately as well as collectively, stating that since BSP is a national party, there cannot be any merger at the state level at the instance of the six MLAs, unless there is a merger of the BSP at the national level. If they violate it, they will be disqualified.”
A day after, on the 29th of July, Ms. Mayawati issued a statement and called the merger unconstitutional.
Ms. Mayawati moved the Rajasthan HC against the merger. She also alleged that Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot merged the MLAs with the Congress out of “malicious intent”.
The BSP President said, “The BSP could have gone to the court earlier too but we were looking for a time to teach Congress party and CM Ashok Gehlot a lesson. Now we have decided to go to the court. We will not let this matter alone. We will go even to the Supreme Court.”
The 6 BSP MLAs in Rajasthan extended their support to the INC in 2019. If they vote against the INC in the State, it may affect their numbers.
If the floor test takes place during the expected Assembly session, the INC is still in majority.
After disqualification notices issued to 18 MLAs and Sachin Pilot, INC claimed to have support of 102 MLAs.
On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had 72 MLAs of the BJP and 21 independent MLAs of the total 200 Rajasthan Assembly seats.
The majority mark to form the State Government is 101.
If approved, the Rajasthan Assembly session would begin from the 31st of July.
Stay tuned for further updates.
