Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the ruling party which has 100 members in a house of 200 will continue to rule the state and the BSP will continue to extend its support from outside.
Reacting to the provocative speech of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kushinagar on Sunday asking Mayawati to withdraw her support to the Gehlot government in Rajasthan following the Alwar gang rape, Gehlot said that the BSP and the Congress are like-minded parties and both the parties work for the downtrodden and the poor, thus Mayawati will not be misled by Modi’s remark and the BSP will continue to support the government.
The Congress in the December 2018 election secured 39.5 per cent votes to get 100 seats, the BJP secured 39.3 per cent votes and failed to come to power by securing half a per cent fewer votes. The party got 63 seats.
The BSP was the third party which secured four per cent votes to get six seats. There are Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (3), CPM (2), Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) two seats, Rashtriya Lok Dal ( 1) and 13 Independents. Out of the 13 Independents, nine are Congress rebels. Thus the Congress is sitting pretty.
But Gehlot’s detractors and some senior BJP leaders in the state feel that if the Congress fails to get adequate numbers in the Lok Sabha elections in the state where there are 25 seats, the Gehlot government would face turbulent times from the rebels.
The BJP in 2014 blanked the Congress winning all the 25 seats and the oll pundits after the completion of the two-phase poll in the state are not have anything to write home about the ruling Congress.
After the Congress got the majority in the state, Sachin Pilot was expected to become the Chief Minister as he was and is also the PCC chief. But, Gehlot turned the table on Pilot on the plea that if he was made the Chief Minister, he would ensure that the Congress would win in the Lok Sabha election.
If that does not happen, Gehlot would lose face and will have to be at the mercy of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi. If Gehlot opposes any effort to remove him and replace him with Pilot, this may lead to division in the party. Thus Gehlot would wait for a good result in his favour on May 23 that would eventually, decide his fate.
