Rajasthan: Congress reaches out to Independents to form govt

After missing the magic number by a whisker in Rajasthan, the Congress party headed by Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday held a meeting with six Independent candidates in an attempt to stitch an alliance to form government in the state.

The meeting was chaired by the former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at his resident situated in Civil Lines, Jaipur in the morning.

Speaking to ANI Gehlot stated, "Congress will make the final announcement in the evening." He also added that "the opinions and sentiments of every MLAs will be taken into account The decision of the high command will ultinately be followed".

In the 2018 Vidhan Sabha election, the Congress bagged 99 seats out of 199 while the rival BJP only managed to get 73.

On the other hand, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party also got as less as 6 seats, however, 21 Independent candidates won in their respective constituencies.

Not only that, the MLAs of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RDL) party also came to visit Gehlot at his residence at around 9 am. The RLD contested two seats in Rajasthan in alliance with the Congress and won in the Bharatpur constituency. Interestingly, this seat was with the BJP from the past two terms. The party's candidate Subhash Garg won by a margin of 5,464 votes with 28.5 per cent of the vote share.