Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday alleged that the BJP fielded a second candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections only because it wanted to defeat the Congress' Dalit candidate Neeraj Dangi.
The BJP knew that they did not have the numbers for winning two seats. Despite this, they fielded a second candidate, he said.
In Rajasthan, elections were held on three Rajya Sabha on Friday. While the Congress won two seats, the BJP got one.
"They knew that they did not have the numbers. Despite this, they fielded an extra candidate just because one candidate from the Congress, Neeraj Dangi, is a Dalit. The BJP people are anti-Dalit and therefore they deliberately fielded their (second) candidate for defeating Dangi," Gehlot told reporters after the announcement of results.
"Their conspiracy has been exposed. They are the killers of democracy. They wanted to do what they did in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh but the voting pattern today remained the same as we had expected. This is a big victory," he said.
He said the Congress was supported by independents and parties like Communist Party of India and Bharatiya Tribal Party, among others.
Both Congress candidates, AICC general secretary and former Union minister K C Venugopal and state unit general secretary Neeraj Dangi were declared elected. Rajasthan BJP vice president Rajendra Gehlot won the third Rajya Sabha seat.
Onkar Singh Lakhawat, the second candidate fielded by the opposition party, lost.
Ahead of the elections, the state witnessed political drama as Gehlot and other Congress leaders alleged that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party's MLAs. The Congress had confined its MLAs, independents and other supporting party MLAs to a resort.
The BJP had rejected the charge as theatrics.
Earlier this week, the opposition party too shifted its MLAs to a hotel, saying it wanted them to get some "training" for the Rajya Sabha polls.
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