As the political storm in Rajasthan doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon, as a counter move, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has lodged a complaint in Jaipur against several Congress leaders including party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala for associating Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat’s name with an alleged audio clip related to the horse-trading of Congress MLAs.
BJP leader Laxmikant Bhardwaj had filed a complaint at Ashok Nagar police station in Jaipur against Randeep Singh Surjewala, Rajasthan Congress president Govind Dotasra, among others.
Spokesperson for the BJP’s Rajasthan unit Bhardwaj, has said in the complaint that for the past few days, Congress leaders including Mahesh Joshi, Randeep Surjewala have been making false statements to tarnish the image of BJP.
On Friday, an FIR had been filled by the Special Operations Group (SOG) against Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, BJP leader Sanjay Jain and rebel Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma on the basis of a complaint by Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi in the audio clips case.
The Congress yesterday claimed that the audio clips contained “horse-trading” discussions between Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Sachin Pilot loyalist Bhanwar Lal Sharma, where they spoke about bribing MLAs and bringing down the Ashok Gehlot government.
Bhardwaj in his complaint said in a bid to hurt the BJP’s image, fake audio clips were prepared, plotting for which was allegedly done at Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s residence.
Bhardwaj said in a fake telephonic conversation that was released, doctored voices of several prominent leaders of the BJP could be heard. In the audio clips, it has been claimed that Congress MLAs have been “bought for crores of rupees”.
He claimed, “the forgery has been done by one Lokesh Sharma, an aide to the Chief Minister”.
The BJP leader said false audio tapes were circulated by Lokesh Sharma to the media to target the BJP and Union Minister Shekhawat and others on the night of July 16.
The party spokesperson said in the complaint that on Friday, Surjewala, Dotasra made the audio tapes public in a press conference at a hotel. Cases were also filed against BJP leaders.
“Therefore, all the accused involved in this conspiracy, along with Lokesh Sharma, Randeep Surjewala, Govind Dotasra, Mahesh Joshi, should be identified and arrested,” the complaint mentioned.
Meanwhile, the Congress had suspended MLAs Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh from primary membership of the party. The party also issued show-cause notices to them.
Notably, Shekhawat had denied any of the tapes has his voice while another BJP leader said the tapes were doctored.
“The voice in the tape is not mine and I am ready for investigation,” the Union Minister had claimed. He also said that he is not in touch with Jain and Sharma and added that there are many people going by the name of Gajendra Singh in the state.
Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi had said the party already had “subtle proofs” against the three accused as named in the audio clip. “We are going through the legal route,” he said.
A press note was also issued by the camp of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot late Thursday night claiming that the three audio clips are of conversations between the BJP’s Shekhawat and Pilot loyalist Bhanwarlal Sharma.
The press note says that the audio is of Sharma’s updates on the progress in meeting the set target of bringing in 30 MLAs into their fold and the purported voice of Shekhawat, on the other side, says that this will bring in the Gehlot government on its knees.
The person, said to be Shekhawat as per the note, also says that Sharma and other MLAs should stay in the hotel for 8-10 days.
After Sachin Pilot and the rebel MLAs gave the second CLP meeting a miss on Tuesday, the MLAs, who were reportedly present showing their support to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, had unanimously demanded that Pilot be removed from the party.
Following this, the Congress announced the removal of Sachin Pilot as the Deputy Chief Minister as well as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief.
Two other ministers, Vishvender Singh and Ramesh Meena, who joined him in his revolt, were also dropped from the Ashok Gehlot cabinet.
The Congress in Rajasthan is witnessing a power tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot, who is upset since he was denied the Chief Minister’s post after the December 2018 assembly elections.
On July 12, sulking leader Sachin Pilot had declared open rebellion against his party by claiming that he has the support of 30 MLAs.
The crisis exploded following the night of July 10 when the Rajasthan Police sent a notice to Pilot, asking him to record his statement over an alleged attempt to bring down the government.