Fearing the poaching of legislators ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, the Rajasthan government on Thursday ordered the suspension of internet services in the Amer area of Jaipur district for 12 hours till 9 am on Friday, where Congress MLAs are staying after they returned from Udaipur.
However, the voice calls and broadband services in the area have not been suspended, according to a notification. Polling for the upper House of the Parliament will take place on Friday.
Notably, all the Congress MLAs have been shifted to Hotel Leela in the Amer area where the internet services have been suspended.
Rajasthan Congress MLAs were moved from Udaipur to Jaipur ahead of the voting for the Rajya Sabha elections that are slated to be held on Friday and party leaders are hoping to secure three seats in the Upper House of the parliament.
MLAs have been lodged at the Leela Palace Hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur on the penultimate day of Rajya Sabha voting.
“Now it should be clear to them (BJP) that they can’t disintegrate the unity of Congress through their actions. Congress is intact and together the party will win all 3 seats tomorrow. After voting you can count, Congress will have all 126 votes,” Congress leader Raghu Sharma said.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also reiterated the confidence and negated any chance of cross-voting.
“We are winning all three seats. We want results to be such that no one would even try to win here. All of us stand together. BJP is scared. They are going to the election commission, to Enforcement Directorate (ED), to courts,” Gehlot said.
Elections for four seats of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan will be held on Friday with the ruling Congress party having fielded 3 candidates Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari.
The Congress currently has 108 legislators in the 200-member state Assembly and needs 123 votes to win three seats.
The polling will take place from 9 am to 4 pm on Friday in the Assembly building and the counting will start from 5 pm.