Raje, two other BJP leaders helped ensure my govt wasn’t toppled: Ashok Gehlot

Jaipur Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said that former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and two other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders helped save his government during the 2020 revolt by fellow Congress legislators, including his then deputy Sachin Pilot.

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Taking potshots at his rivals in the party, Gehlot said he had requested those Congress legislators who “took money” during the 2020 political crisis to “return it to Union home minister Amit Shah”.

“Amit Shah, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Dharmendra Pradhan conspired together to topple my government. They distributed money in Rajasthan and they are not taking the money back now. I am surprised why they are not demanding the money back from them (the MLAs),” Gehlot said while addressing a programme in Dholpur.

“I have even told the MLAs that whatever money they have taken — ₹10 crore or ₹20 crore — if you have spent anything, I will give that part or I will get it from the AICC (All India Congress Committee),” he added.

In July 2020, Congress leader and then deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other party MLAs revolted against Gehlot’s leadership. The crisis that lasted nearly a month ended after the party high command intervened and removed Pilot as the deputy CM and state Congress chief.

Gehlot’s remarks came a day after Pilot, who represents the Tonk assembly constituency, said he would continue to fight against corruption even though some people may not like it.

Gehlot said his government could be saved because of the support of three BJP leaders — former CM Vasundhara Raje, former assembly speaker Kailash Meghwal and legislator Shobharani Kushwah. He said just as he did not support the toppling of the BJP government led by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat when he was the state Congress president, in the same manner Raje and Meghwal did not support the toppling of the Congress government three years ago.

“What wrong had they done? They said it was not ethical to topple an elected government.” Gehlot said, while addressing the gathering at the home turf of Raje. “That’s how the government got saved.” Late on Sunday, TV channel quoted Raje as calling Gehlot’s remarks a “conspiracy and insult.”

Kushwah had cross-voted in favour of the Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections last year, following which she was suspended from the BJP.

Gehlot said if the MLAs did not return the money, they will always be under pressure from Shah. “He is the Union home minister, he will intimidate, like he threatens in Gujarat, in Maharashtra he divided Shiv Sena into two,” the CM alleged.

As a third-term CM, Gehlot said it was his duty to take everyone along by forgetting past happenings and ensure the return of the Congress to power in the assembly elections, scheduled for later this year.

Gehlot also praised Congress MLAs Rohit Bohra, Chetan Dudi and Danish Abrar for promptly informing him about the 2020 revolt against his government. “Had they not supported me at the right time, I would not have been a CM today,” he said.

He said these three legislators, the BSP-turned-Congress MLAs and independent MLAs who supported him and saved his government in 2020 deserved to be made ministers but he could not do so due to political reasons and was sad about it.

Also read: ‘Why delay in taking action’?: Sachin Pilot on exam paper leak incidents in Rajasthan

Rejecting Gehlot’s claims as “baseless”, a senior BJP leader said the party had nothing to do with the rebellion in the Congress.

“What happened in July 2020 in Rajasthan was the result of infighting and resentment among the Congress MLAs with the state leadership. The BJP was in no way involved with it,” said BJP MLA and spokesperson Ram Lal Sharma.

On Gehlot’s claims of Congress MLAs having taken money from Shah, Sharma added: “If the CM has evidence against his MLAs why not expel them. The party chief is from his camp, then why the delay in getting them expelled?”