A new crisis seems to have cropped up for the Congress in the run up to the Rajasthan elections. A local report stated that most of the independent MLAs supporting the Congress government and the MLAs who joined the party from BSP have demanded a “ticket guarantee”.
According to a report in Amar Ujala, five legislators who had merged with the Congress from BSP in 2019 raised the demand in front of state party co-incharge Qazi Nizamuddin, except Rajendra Singh Gudha.
Gudha had last year told a national daily about the growing resentment and discontent among BSP MLAs whom he led into the Congress fold. “Last time when we tied up with the government, three out of six MLAs became ministers and three became parliamentary secretaries. We could not get similar perks this time. The kind of attitude some ministers have towards us, it will definitely create mistrust among our MLAs,” the former BSP leader told Dainik Bhaskar last year.
This time, however, Gudha has been mum so far. If the Amar Ujala report is to be believed, the leader has joined the Sachin Pilot camp and hence has not raised any issues.
The report stated that if the 18 supporters of the Pilot camp crack a deal with the Congress high command, and are able to have an upper hand, Gudha too will reap benefits.
Gudha himself is a strong candidate and without support from any party, can easily win Udaipurwati in Jhunjhunun district.
The Demands of Former BSP MLAs
According to the Amar Ujala report, the “ticket guarantee” demand was raised by Deepchand Kheria and Sandeep Yadav. The MLAs apparently have said that they want to secure their future, and hence Congress should announce that they’ll be given tickets.
Sandeep Yadav and Lakhan Singh Meena were present in the feedback programme along with MLA Wajib Ali. The report stated that they also spoke to the party on behalf of Joginder Singh Awana and Deepchand Kheria.
Three Congress co-incharges, Amrita Dhawan, Virendra Singh Rathore and Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin, have been taking feedback regarding election preparation.
11 of the 13 Independents Have Raised Similar Demand
Independent MLAs Sanyam Lodha from Sirohi, Babulal Nagar from Dudu, Omprakash Hudla from Mahwa, Alok Beniwal from Shahpura, Kanti Prasad from Thanagaji, Mahadev Singh Khandela from Khandela, Ramila Khadia from Kushalgarh, Rajkumar Gaur from Ganganagar, Ramkesh Meena from Gangapur, Laxman Meena from Bassi, Suresh Tank from Kishangarh have demanded ticket assurance from Congress.
The Independent MLAs have said that they have given their full support to strengthen the Congress government in five years. “During the political crisis, an attempt was made to buy us too. But we did not betray the party,” an Independent MLA was quoted by Amar Ujala.
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