The Congress on Sunday demanded that Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat should either resign or be removed from his post to facilitate investigation into allegations that he was involved in buying MLAs of the ruling side in Rajasthan to destabilise the Ashok Gehlot government.
In a press conference held in Jaipur, Congress leader Ajay Maken said that Shekhawat, who has claimed that the voice in a taped conversation relating to efforts to buy MLAs supporting the Gehlot government was not his, should come forward and provide his voice sample to the state police that is investigating the matter.
“We have all recognised Gajendra Singh Shekhawat’s voice in the tape and he is named in the FIR in the matter of buying MLAs. In such a situation, is it proper that he is still a minister in the central government? The Congress party demands that Gajendra Singh Shekhawat should either resign immediately or that he should be removed from the cabinet so that he does not interfere in the investigation,” said Maken, who has been sent to Jaipur by the Congress high command as a central observer in the wake of former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot’s rebellion against Gehlot.
The Congress leader also accused the police of BJP-ruled Haryana as also in Delhi, where the police force comes under the Union home ministry, of obstructing the work of the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan Police, which is investigating the allegations of horse trading. He said that Haryana and Delhi Police have prevented the SOG from taking the voice samples of the accused in the matter, whose voices are allegedly heard in the tape.
“Why is the police, at the behest of BJP, helping these MLAs escape from Manesar to Delhi and next wherever? The SOG has been prevented from taking voice samples in Manesar and Delhi, and may be the same thing will happen when they go to Karnataka next,” said Maken.
He said that the protection offered to the rebel MLAs by the police in Haryana and Delhi made clear the BJP’s involvement in the efforts to topple the Gehlot government. “Amit Shah’s police is giving these MLAs protection,” he said. Further, he said that rebel MLAs engaging the services of lawyers like Mukul Rohatgi and Harish Salve to represent them in the Rajasthan High Court was further proof of the BJP being involved.
“Is the Central government threatening to start a CBI probe in the matter because other big names in the BJP are involved?” he asked.
On whether the Gehlot could go in for a trust vote in the Rajasthan Assembly in the coming week as is being speculated, Maken said the state government would decide on this depending on whether it was even required.
“The chief minister will give information on this. It is the prerogative of the government. It has to be seen whether it is even required or not,” Maken said.
