Jaipur: A day after more than 20 Congress MLAs in Rajasthan accused the opposition BJP of trying to bring down the Ashok Gehlot-led government, the saffron party on Saturday said the Grand Old Party was simply trying to divert the attention from its ‘mismanagement’ in handling the Covid-19 crisis. It added that the Congress was blaming BJP for internal feuds with the party.

“After failing to handle the Covid-19 crisis and being unsuccessful in every front of the governance since the past one-and-half-years, the Congress is now blaming us with baseless allegations to divert the attention of the public. It actually reflects the internal feud within the Congress party and how they don’t trust their own MLAs,” state BJP president Satish Poonia said. Late on Friday night, 24 Congress MLAs had alleged that the saffron party was trying to bring down the Congress government in the state through horse trading and other corrupt practices. “We have clear information that top leaders of the BJP are involved in this conspiracy, who are contacting Congress MLAs and trying to misguide them by luring them in various ways. But the Congress in the state and all the MLAs who support it will not let their efforts to succeed,” the MLAs said in the joint statement.

Referring to the Rajya Sabha elections held last month, the Congress MLAs said that the saffron party had failed in its horse trading attempt due to the unity of Congress, independents and other parties. All efforts to lure them proved futile, they added. The MLAs also exuded confidence that the Congress government in the state will complete its five-year-term as well as form the government in 2023 after winning the state Assembly elections.

Among the signatories were MLAs, Lakhan Singh Meena, Joginder Singh Awana, Mukesh Bhakar, Vedprakash Solanki, Harish Meena, Ashok Bairwa, Prashant Bairwa and Shakuntala Rawat. According to sources, several of the signatories are also loyalists of Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.

Before the Rajya Sabha elections, Government Chief Whip in Rajasthan Assembly Mahesh Joshi had written to the Anti-Corruption Bureau against the “dirty attempts that are being made to lure our MLAs and independent MLAs supporting us, along the lines of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, to destabilise a democratically elected government which is dedicated to public service”. Following the Rajya Sabha elections, Pilot had said that the two candidates of the Congress party received votes as per expectations and that whatever was said or they were made to say before the elections, there was no justification for it and were baseless.

Meanwhile, Poonia condemned the FIR over the case filed by the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan police, saying that the government is trying to drag the BJP while the matter pertains to division within the Congress.

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