‘From where will Subhash Chandra get votes?’: Mahesh Joshi, Gehlot’s resort politics fulcrum

Media baron Subhash Chandra claims to be an Independent but not a single Independent MLA has signed as a proposer in his forms – all his proposers are from the BJP, says Mahesh Joshi.

Congress government's chief whip in the Rajasthan Assembly, Mahesh Joshi.

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government’s chief whip in the Rajasthan Assembly, Mahesh Joshi, has his hands full. Dubbed as CM Gehlot’s “Man Friday”, Joshi, the public health engineering department minister, has been overlooking the Udaipur resort arrangements for the sequestered Congress MLAs and other supporting ones ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, even as the Delhi Police looks for his son Rohit in a rape case and his wife remains in a hospital, having suffered brain haemorrhage. To pre-empt cross-voting and horse-trading in the elections, Joshi has also filed complaints with the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) as well as the Election Commission of India (ECI). He speaks to The Indian Express in Jaipur Tuesday on the resort politics. Excerpts:

The Congress claims the support of 126 MLAs but why have a little over 100 reached the Udaipur resort so far?

About 5-10 MLAs, such as me, are here and there, but there is no one far away, who wouldn’t vote for Congress. Then Deependra (Singh) ji, Parasram Mordia, Bhanwarlal Sharma, Ved Prakash Sharma are unwell. Om Prakash Hudla is in Udaipur but he is also unwell. Anyone can be unwell and we have emerged out of Covid. Even my wife is in ICU after she suffered brain haemorrhage. So we have these compulsions which can’t be helped.

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Why did you lodge a complaint with the ACB and the ECI?

Subhash Chandra (media baron and BJP-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls) claims to be an Independent but not a single Independent MLA has signed as a proposer in his forms – all his proposers are from the BJP. He should be openly a BJP candidate. Does he consider becoming a BJP candidate a crime? All of this is happening behind closed doors and when things are done behind closed doors, it leads to suspicion. From where will he get the votes? Kahin na kahin daal mein kaala hai. (there is something fishy somehere). When we say we have 126 votes, then we actually have them with us.

It is being said that the aim of these complaints is to discourage Congress party’s and other supporting MLAs from indulging in horse-trading.

The aim is to discourage corruption and horse-trading. In my letters, is there anything that runs afoul of principles? Should there be horse-trading? BJP should say that there shouldn’t be horse-trading, but it is not saying so.

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The BJP is saying that the Congress MLAs are busy partying while they have ferried their MLAs to a resort for training purposes. Your comments?

They should allow media at their resort from morning till evening then.

Most Congress MLAs have switched off their mobile phones. Why?

Wherever we have taken our MLAs to in the past three-and-a-half years (of the Congress government) – and I have had a role in management of our MLAs – we never asked any MLA to switch off their mobile. Nor have we taken any MLA’s mobile. To book the resort, I had gone to the spot with the CM myself. And the place has connectivity problems.

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