Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Sunday claimed that former CM Vasundhara Raje had helped save his government in 2020 by opposing the BJP’s attempts to bribe MLAs. Hours later, Raje dismissed the chief minister’s statement as a lie and conspiracy against her. At a programme in Dholpur district, Raje’s bastion, Gehlot claimed that during the crisis of 2020 — when Sachin Pilot and 18 of his MLAs had rebelled against him — Raje and BJP leader Kailash Meghwal had spoken out against horse-trading. Gehlot also praised Shobharani Kushwaha, the BJP MLA who had broken ranks with the Opposition party and supported the Congress during the Rajya Sabha elections. He accused Union Ministers Amit Shah, Dharmendra Pradhan and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of being involved in the “conspiracy” to topple the government. “..Kailash Meghwal ne aur Vasundhara ji Scindia ne kaha, ki hamare yahan kabhi parampara nahin rahi hai, is prakar chuni hui sarkar ko girane ki paison ke bal par. Ye kaha unhone, kya galat kaha unhone? Shobharani ji ne unki baat suni, Vasundhara ji ki aur Kailash Meghwal ki, inki antartatma ne kaha mujhe bhi aise logon ke saath nahin dena chahiye. Isiliye hamari sarkar bachi hai (.Kailash Meghwal and Vasundhara ji said that we don’t have a tradition of toppling elected governments by money power. Shobharani ji listened to them and her inner voice, that she doesn't want to support such people. That is why our government survived),” said the CM. In a late-night statement, Raje responded: “The Chief Minister’s praise for me is a major conspiracy by him. To avoid a historic defeat in the 2023 elections, he is creating fabricated stories.” Raje said that bribery is a crime and that if MLAs have taken money, FIRs should be lodged against them. “He has made such outrageous statements because of the rebellion happening in his own party. As far as horse trading is concerned, Gehlot himself is the mastermind behind it,” she said. Raje added that Gehlot had unfairly accused Home Minister Shah, “whose honesty and integrity are well known”. Gehlot’s statements and Raje’s response came a day after Pilot, the former deputy CM reiterated his demand for a probe into alleged corruption cases during the tenure of the previous BJP government led by Raje. At the programme on Sunday, Gehlot said he had requested Congress MLAs who “took money” to “return it to Shah”. The CM also said that when Kushwaha supported the Congress during the Rajya Sabha elections, “the BJP was flabbergasted, but Kailash Meghwal knew, Vasundhara ji Scindia knew”. Kushwaha was present at the programme. The 2020 political crisis occurred after Pilot rebelled against Gehlot and camped in Manesar in Haryana and Delhi for over a month along with 18 MLAs loyal to him. The crisis ended after the intervention of the party high command. Pilot was then removed as the deputy chief minister and state Congress president. Back then, Raje had not made any public statement about the crisis. Meghwal, a Raje loyalist, had spoken against horse-trading of MLAs when Gehlot accused BJP of trying to topple his government. “When the crisis happened, Amit Shah, Dharmendra Pradhan and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat conspired together. They distributed money in Rajasthan. They are not taking back the money. I am worried, why are they not taking back the money?” Gehlot said in Dholpur. “I have told our MLAs who took money — be it Rs 10 crore, Rs 20 crore, whatever they took and have spent — to return it to Amit Shah. If you keep his money, he will have a hold on you. He will threaten and scare, like in Gujarat … He threatened Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and split the party into two,” said the Chief Minister. While Gehlot has maintained that the BJP tried to topple his government back then and suggested that money was spent to poach MLAs, the BJP and the MLAs who had rebelled have denied the allegations. In the past, Pilot has termed Gehlot’s allegations “baseless”. Last year, Gehlot had called Pilot a “traitor”. Politicians such as Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) founder Hanuman Beniwal for long have alleged a “collusion” between Gehlot and Raje and accused Raje of helping the CM in 2020. Last month, at a press conference in Jaipur, Pilot repeatedly insinuated that to “break this perception” of detractors about collusion between Gehlot and Raje, the former needed to act decisively in corruption cases during the Raje government’s tenure. Both Gehlot and Raje have denied such allegations of collusion. Meanwhile, the CM praised Congress MLAs Danish Abrar, Chetan Dudi, and Rohit Bohra for saving his government during the 2020 political crisis. “You have been loyal to the party, the party could never forget you. If I had my way, all three youngsters would have become ministers with me. I am sad that I couldn’t make these three — the Independent friends who supported us and helped save the government, the six people from BSP — ministers because of some political reasons. The actual deserving persons were those 102 people who supported me. The actual deserving persons were those who informed me on time that a huge betrayal was going to happen,” said Gehlot.
