Day after Cong MLAs express resentment against party, Dotasra says 'Everything under control'

A day after three Congress MLAs expressed their resentment here, party's chief for Rajasthan Govind Singh Dotasra on Saturday said ''everything was under control'' and all the three candidates of the party will win the Rajya Sabha elections on June 10.

He, along with two ministers Lal Chand Kataria and Rajendra Singh Yadav and three other MLAs, reached Udaipur in a chartered plane to meet the legislators who have been shifted to a hotel in this city fearing poaching by the BJP ahead of the polls.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was also scheduled to arrive in Udaipur but his visit was postponed.

''Everything is under control. We are going to win three seats in Rajya Sabha,'' Dotasra told reporters at Dabok airport in Udaipur.

The Congress has fielded three candidates – Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari – BJP has fielded Ghanshyam Tiwari and there is BJP-backed Independent candidate Subhash Chandra in the fray. Meanwhile, Independent MLA Omprakash Hudla, who was also put up at a hotel in Udaipur, was taken to MB Government Hospital after he complained of uneasiness. The party sources said 11 out of the 13 Independent MLAs and several of the Congress MLAs are staying at the hotel in Udaipur.

Of the six BSP-turned-Congress MLAs, only one is at the hotel, they said.

On Friday, three Congress leaders -- Soldier Welfare Minister Rajendra Gudha, Scheduled Castes Commission Chairman and MLA Khiladi Bairwa and MLA Girraj Singh Malinga -- had expressed their resentment against the state leadership in Jaipur saying justice was denied to them. Gudha is among the six MLAs who had won the 2018-assembly elections as a BSP candidate but defected to the Congress in 2019.

He said that the party denied the six MLAs the respect they deserved. The five other MLAs are Lakhan Meena, Deepchand Kheria, Sandeep Yadav, Joginder Awana and Wajib Ali.

Of them, Joginder Awana is in the Congress camp in Udaipur.

The Congress leaders claim the support of 126 MLAs, including the 108 of its own. The party requires a total of 123 votes to win three seats.