Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati weighed in on the alleged phone tapping row in Rajasthan accusing chief minister Ashok Gehlot of acting illegally and calling for President’s rule in the state.
In a tweet shortly after the BJP sought a CBI probe into the Congress’ allegations that it has audio tapes to prove that the BJP was in collusion with rebel Congress leaders to bring down the Gehlot government, Mayawati accused Gehlot of being a serial offender.
“Rajasthan Chief Minister first violated the anti-defection law and betrayed the BSP by admitting its MLAs into the Congress. And now he apparently made another illegal decision by tapping phones,’ Mayawati tweeted.
The media had reported on Wednesday that six BSP MLAs who had joined the ruling Congress in Rajasthan in 2019 are likely to play a crucial role in case Gehlot is called to take a floor test to prove his government’s majority in the Assembly. This was the second time since 2009 when six MLAs of BSP had moved sides to join the Congress. Gehlot was the chief minister then too.
According to senior constitutional expert Subash Kashyap, while any member of the assembly can file a petition with the speaker to seek disqualification of defected MLAs, the party whose MLAs have defected also have the option of approaching a court of law. “The votes of defected MLAs in case of a floor test are valid as long as they are not disqualified by the speaker.”
A senior BSP leader had told media that the party is still awaiting the Election Commission’s response to their letter. “We plan to move court on why we were not informed about Rajasthan assembly speaker’s decision to change the MLAs nomenclature.”
