New Delhi, March 4 After the midnight drama involving Madhya Pradesh MLAs at a resort in Haryana's Gurugram, the Congress on Wednesday hit out at the BJP for allegedly indulging in horse trading, saying the saffron party believes in poaching MLAs of other parties and has no respect for the Supreme Court's observations on horse trading.
The Congress' reaction came after one of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Ramabai was "rescued" with her baggage from the Gurugram hotel by Madhya Pradesh ministers Jitu Patwari and Jaivardhan Singh. The Congress has alleged that the BJP has offered huge sums of money to the tune of Rs 24 to 30 crore to the MLAs to change sides.
Reportedly seven MLAs including four from the Congress are at the ITC Hotel in Manesar under high security.
Speaking to the media in Parliament, Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said, "In a democracy the people decide which government is to be formed and there are principles in politics which need to be followed. Look at the example of Goa, Arunachal, Manipur, Meghalaya. They (BJP) possess huge amounts of black money. The treasury of BJP is full due to demonetisation, and what is not considered good in democracy, the people of the BJP are trying to do on the indications of two people," he said in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
"But they are not going to succeed," Gohil said, adding that the BJP has disregarded the Supreme Court's observations which it cited when similar attempts were made by the party in Karnataka and the northeast.
Gohil said that if the BJP had respected the top court's observations then it would not have indulged in such activities.
"And I hope that the Supreme Court will teach them a lesson as there is a Constitutional amendment against horse trading and such activities should not be done on money power," he said.
( With inputs from IANS )