Rajya Sabha polls: After ACB, Raj Congress writes to CEC fearing horse-trading

Jaipur: The ruling Congress on Tuesday approached the chief electoral officer here and requested him to maintain extra vigilance due to the possibility of MLAs' horse-trading during the Rajya Sabha polls to be held on June 10.

The Rajasthan government's chief whip and cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi, in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, said that the election department needs to keep a watch on the people involved in horse-trading and if caught, strict action should be taken against such people.

He met the chief electoral officer and handed over the letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner.

Joshi recently approached the Anti-Corruption Bureau, expressing apprehensions of horse-trading. He went to the ACB office on Sunday and gave a written complaint to DG-ACB, B.L. Soni, requesting him that a watch be kept on the people involved in horse-trading.

Congress and BJP MLAs have been kept in private hotels to check horse-trading in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha polls for four seats.

While the Congress MLAs have been shifted to Udaipur, the BJP MLAs have camped in Jaipur near Jamdoli.

The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party has announced to support Independent candidate Subhash Chandra, who is being backed by the BJP. This support gave a little relief to the BJP, while the Congress has been successful in placating BSP-turned Congress MLAs who were dissatisfied with the ruling party's style of working.

The Congress has fielded three candidates, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and Pramod Tiwar while the BJP has fielded Ghanshyam Tiwari as its official candidate besides backing Chandra who is contesting as an Independent.

The Congress is anticipating a smooth win in three seats with 108 MLAs while 13 Independents had already supported it earlier. Besides, it has one MLA from ally RLD and two MLAs each from BTP and CPM.

The BJP has 71 seats and needs 11 votes to touch 82 to win two seats.