Jaipur: With media baron Dr. Subhash Chandra entering the fray as a BJP-backed independent candidate in Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan, the Congress has alleged horse-trading. Rajasthan government's chief whip Mahesh Joshi has lodged a complaint with the ACB and the Election Commission seeking tapping of phones of suspects to tackle the horse-trading of MLAs.
Following the complaint by Joshi, Rajasthan ACB and Intelligence are expected to intensify surveillance of such suspicious people, who can influence the Rajya Sabha elections with money power.
For this, permission is being taken from the ACB Headquarters and the Intelligence Branch of Rajasthan Police by sending the numbers of suspicious persons to the ACS Home and Home Secretary. Pertinently, in 2020 also when complaints about alleged MLA horse-trading came to the fore, the SOG had arrested BJP leaders Ashok Singh and Bharat Malani on the basis of phone tapping.
Along with this, a complaint was also registered against three MLAs Om Prakash Hoodla, Suresh Tank, and Khushveer Singh, and all these complaints were transferred to ACB for investigation. Three audios related to alleged horse-trading had also gone viral at the time with the names of Sanjay Jain, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Bhavarlal Sharma coming up.
Chief Whip of the Rajasthan Government Mahesh Joshi had lodged an FIR against the three. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had also lodged an FIR against unknown police officers including Lokesh Sharma, OSD to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Delhi, alleging “wrongful tapping of phones and tarnishing the reputation” of the BJP leaders.
