oppn parties Mayawati And Kumaraswamy Call Out The Congress Over Horse Trading

Story Of The Day

Assessee Not Responsible For Ensuring TDS Is Paid To The Government: Delhi HC
OPINIONS : Strongly Expressed

January 22, 2025

People Are Talking About

Rohit Warns Sarfaraz, Police Use It To Warn Two-Wheeler Riders

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
Mayawati And Kumaraswamy Call Out The Congress Over Horse Trading

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2020-07-29 13:38:32

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

While the Congress is trying to take the high moral ground in Rajasthan by calling out the BJP for indulging in horse-trading, at least two political leaders - both former allies - have said that with its past record, the Congress is not the ideal party to raise such questions.

Mayawati of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and H D Kumaraswamy of JD(S) have both lashed out at the Congress for being the originator of horse-trading in India. Mayawati has been angry with the Congress for having lured all its 6 legislators in Rajasthan. The BSP legislators changed side and merged the state unit with the Congress. Mayawati alleges that Ashok Gehlot 'bought' them. She has already issued a whip to them to vote against the Congress in the event a vote of confidence is moved in the Rajasthan assembly.

Mayawati's grouse is justified. She has assiduously built up a space for her party in many states. While the tally in other states has been going down lately, with some states not electing a single BSP MLA in successive assemblies for the last 15 years, Rajasthan is one state which has always elected some BSP candidates. The six elected this time equaled the record set in 2008. Hence, to lose all of them, and the party set up in the state, to the machinations of the Congress will hurt badly. She has said that she could have filed a case against the legislators earlier but was waiting for the right moment to teach the Congress a lesson.

Kumaraswamy, on the other hand, called Congress "another name for horse-trading". He said the party is an expert at dividing political parties and purchasing MLAs. Referring to the 6 BSP MLAs, Kumaraswamy asked the Congress "If you are dividing like-minded party MLAs supporting (you) through deceit, who would support you? Are these mistakes not visible to you?" Kumaraswamy also reminded the Congress, which was crying hoarse about purchase of MLAs, that it had divided the JD(S) in Karnataka in the past.

Kumarasway said "haven't they made attempts to divide? Is it not a fact that for the sake of one Rajya Sabha seat, the Congress government in Karnataka purchased eight JD(S) MLAs? Is this democracy? Both parties (Congress and BJP) are criminals in purchase matters." He added further that "when SM Krishna was the CM (of Karnataka), didn't the Congress buy our MLAs? Didn't the Congress conspire to form a government after the 2018 Assembly polls by buying our MLAs? Does Congress have the moral courage to answer these questions?" He said that the Congress was carrying out the "Save Democracy" campaign across India over the situation in Rajasthan without giving a damn about its own record in this matter. 

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Turmoil In Mollywood

Turmoil In Mollywood

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

In Depth

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Editor's Pick

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.