India / Will teach CM Ashok Gehlot a lesson: Mayawati amid Raj political crisis

New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Tuesday, 28 July, hit out at Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot for merging six BSP MLAs of the state wth the Congress and warned that she will move the Supreme Court in the matter if need be.

“In Rajasthan, after election results, BSP gave unconditional support of all its six MLAs to the Congress. Unfortunately, CM Gehlot, out of his malicious intent and to damage BSP, merged them with Congress unconstitutionally. He did the same even in his last tenure,” Mayawati said in a media briefing, as quoted by ANI.

“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 be. We will go even to the Supreme Court,” she said.

She further said that the six MLAs will be expelled from the BSP if they support the Gehlot government in the confidence motion.

The Rajasthan High Court on Monday had dismissed a petition filed by the BJP against the merger of six BSP MLAs in the state with the Congress.

Earlier on Monday, the BSP moved HC seeking to become a party in the petition.

The status of these six MLAs is disputed. Ten months ago, all the six MLAs had announced their merger with the ruling Congress, boosting its numbers in the Assembly.

The BSP is now disputing the merger of the MLAs, arguing that as BSP is a national party the merger of its MLAs in Rajasthan is not valid as the BSP hasn’t merged with the Congress at the national level.

The Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday, 26 July, instructed 6 MLAs elected on the party ticket to vote against the Congress in the eventuality of a trust vote.

BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Misra made this announcement on the night of Sunday in a release issued in the name of party supremo Mayawati.