Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday launched a direct attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah accusing him of holding secret meetings with Congress MLAs of the state earlier this year, reported NDTV. He also warned of renewed attempts from the Bharatiya Janata Party to topple governments in Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
“They were giving assurances [to the MLAs] that they have felled five different governments and this will be the sixth,” Gehlot reportedly said, on the occasion of the virtual inauguration of a party office in Sirohi district.
“Our MLAs told me after meeting with Amit Shah and [Petroleum Minister] Dharmendra Pradhan that they were ashamed to see him as the home minister,” The Hindu quoted Gehlot, as saying. “There was a time when Sardar [Vallabhbhai] Patel was the home minister, and now it is him.”
Gehlot further accused the BJP of conspiring and resorting to unethical acts because it is “blinded by the greed for power”.
BJP’s Gulab Chand Kataria, the leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, however, dismissed Gehlot’s accusations. “It doesn’t make sense to make allegations against others when you are not ensuring peace inside your own house,” he said, according to NDTV. “Those who were on the brink of rebellion were never pacified.”
Kataria was apparently referring to 19 Congress MLAs, led by the then Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, who had threatened to pull out of Gehlot’s government in July. The month-long uncertainty created by the rebellion within the ruling party’s ranks ended on August 14, when the government won the vote of confidence in a special session of the Assembly.
Back then too, Gehlot had pinned the blame on the BJP for attempting to stage the coup, but the saffron party denied any such intentions.
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