Rajasthan: To prevent defections in Rajasthan, BSP to give tickets to cadre-based workers: RS MP Ramji Gautam | India News

JAIPUR: In a bid to prevent MLAs from defecting to other parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will adopt poll strategies like – ‘distributing election tickets to cadre-based workers of the party’ and ‘forging a post-poll alliance to join the government, instead of supporting it from outside’, as it sets a target of winning 60 seats in Rajasthan during the upcoming assembly elections.

Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam, who is Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) chief in-charge of Rajasthan, said there was no question of post-poll alliance with the Congress as the party betrayed the BSP twice in Rajasthan. “The decision on post-poll alliances will be taken by our party chief Mayawatiji. It might be so that we emerge so strong after the elections that both the parties – Congress and BJP – decide to support us,” he said, adding that priority will be given to cadre-based party workers in distribution of election tickets. “We are very careful about distributing tickets this time. All the three candidates who have been finalised, are committed party workers. We will give tickets to those who have worked for the party for five years.”
“In 2018, the Congress party didn’t have a majority of its own. Behenji had decided to support the Congress government from outside. But, later, the chief minister (Ashok Gehlot) of the state stabbed the BSP in the back. He took away all the six MLAs of our party when we didn’t have any demands (from the Congress party). They betrayed us. Therefore, this time we have set a target to win 60 seats in the state and contest in all the 200 assembly constituencies. BSP will emerge stronger this time to act as a ‘balance of power’ in the state,” said Gautam adding that the heckling of former minister Rajendra Singh Gudha in the state assembly was a result of betrayal to the people.

On the question of alliances with regional parties, he said, “Our party chief had announced recently that we’ll forge post-poll alliances to ensure power sharing in the governments (in poll-bound states), instead of supporting them from outside. We will ensure our MLAs are offered portfolios (in the government) post elections.”
Gautam further pointed out when party MLAs leave BSP post elections, they cross over to other parties without taking away its support base or breaking up the party cadre. BSP state president Bhagwan Singh Baba iterated that election tickets will not be given to any of the six BSP MLAs who defected to Congress in 2019. On RLP and AAP contesting assembly polls, Baba said, “More the parties contest elections, it will help the BSP because we have a fixed number of votes. We will get those votes.”