As the political crisis in Rajasthan continues, two MLAs from a regional party, Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) on Saturday, 18 July, met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and handed over their letters of support to him.
The party had previously been an ally, but announced last week that they had withdrawn support from the Congress-led government in the state.
"Both MLAs of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) announced their support to the government after meeting their state executive officials and discussing their demands," Gehlot wrote in his tweet, sharing photos with the MLAs.
(Catch all the live updates on Rajasthan political crisis here.)
“We had once decided to not support any party. A whip was also issued... We had supported the government on some conditions but they had shown some laxity on accepting them. The CM has now agreed that he'll fulfil our demands. We now stand with the CM and the government,” Rajkumar Roat, one of the BTP MLAs said, according to ANI.
“Two BTP MLAs, Rajkumar Roat and Ram Prasad Dindor, have supported our government from the very beginning and it continues. They've expressed satisfaction with the Ashok Gehlot government's work. They are committed to provide stability to the state government,” Govind Singh Dotasra, Rajasthan Congress president, said on Saturday, according to ANI.
Political Drama Involving BTP
In some political drama, earlier this week, the two MLAs had withdrawn support from the Congress on 14 July. While they had earlier supported Gehlot’s government amid the rebellion, they were asked to abstain in the event of a trust vote in the Assembly, ANI reported.
The letter issued by the BTP to its two MLAs said that they ‘are ordered to not support either the BJP, the Congress, Gehlot or Pilot’ if the situation of a floor test arises.
According to NDTV, BTP chief Mahesh Bhai Vasava wrote to the MLAs saying the party should stay neutral in case of a floor test in the Assembly, asking the MLAs to skip any floor test altogether.
The two MLAs had then told NDTV that they supported Gehlot, but that they would take a final decision after talking to party leaders.
Losing the two MLAs would have brought down support numbers for CM Gehlot.
Later, in a video, one of the BTP MLAs, Roat, alleged that police had held him hostage and chased his car while he along with others was trying to leave Jaipur. He alleged that his car keys were also snatched away by the police.
Later, in the evening, one more video released by him showed police taking away his car keys, as he requested saying it was hot and assuring he would not run away.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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