BSP MLAs joined Cong on their own: Gehlot

Jaipur, Sep 17 (IANS) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot here on Tuesday said the six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators had joined the Congress on their own and alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to buy MLAs in Madhya Pradesh to topple the government there.

"It was their own decision to join the Congress. We never tried to buy them as we are not like the BJP who took our MLAs to form its own government in Karnataka," Gehlot said.

On the BSP chief's reaction, he said, "It's natural for Mayawati to react. I can understand her situation. But she should understand the political circumstances of Rajasthan. It's (political circumstances) in the nation and the state is different," the Chief Minister said.

Mayawati had shot three tweets expressing anger over six BSP MLAs' switching to the Congress.

In her first tweet, she said, "The Congress government in Rajasthan has once again proved to be a non-trustworthy and fraudulent party who has taken along the BSP MLAs. This is a betrayal towards the BSP, which has been repeated when the BSP was extending its unconditional support to the Congress government externally."

In her second tweet, she said, "Instead of fighting with opposition parties/ organisations, the Congress always shocks those that support them. The Congress is thus an anti-SC, ST, OBC party and has never been sincere and honest about their rights."

In her third tweet, the BSP chief said, "The Congress has always been opposed to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and his humanitarian ideology. For this reason, Ambedkar had to resign as the first Law Minister of the country. The Congress neither allowed him to go to the Lok Sabha nor conferred the Bharat Ratna on him. Very sad and embarrassing."

Refuting Gehlot's claims, Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said, "These are untrue and baseless allegations. Had it been the case (what Gehlot is saying), the government in MP would have been toppled long time back." The BJP didn't believe in such practices, he added.

Gehlot earlier had accused the BJP of making efforts to disturb the MP government. "Efforts are being made to topple the Congress government in MP. MLAs are being offered Rs 15-20 crore. But we are not engaged in such practice," he said.