Amid reports that some of its own MLAs might jump the fence, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in a bid to thwart any attempt to poach them ahead of the crucial vote of confidence by Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat, has sent 27 of them to Jaipur. They are likely to stay here for a couple of days. In fact, there is a possibility that they may be flown to Dehradun directly on the day of vote of confidence next week. There were unconfirmed reports that eight rebel Congress MLAs were brought to Jaipur in the afternoon Tuesday and kept at a farm house but in the evening they were shifted to Gurgaon. Meanwhile, the BJP MLAs who came in two separate groups Wednesday were received by former president of Rajasthan University Students Union and currently ward councilor in Jaipur Municipal Corporation Ashok Lahoty along with couple of fellow party leaders at the Jaipur airport and frisked away to hotel Jaipur Greens, around 30 km away on Jaipur-Ajmer national highway. This is the same hotel where the BJP fearing cross voting in Rajya Sabha elections in 2010, had kept its MLAs.
But, the party landed itself into controversy after it was revealed that the MLAs watched a pirated DVD of “Raajneeti”. A police complaint had been filed and the court had ordered a probe into the matter.
Jaipur has always been considered a safe place by the BJP in the event of a political crisis in other states.
In February 20005, immediately after assembly election, 12 party MLAs from Goa were sent here to keep them away from predatory eyes of Congress government which had still not proved majority on the floor of the assembly. They were kept at a resort on Jaipur-Delhi highway.
A month later, 37 Jharkhand MLAs including 31 from the BJP and five independent stayed at a resort and a private farmhouse in Jaipur for three days before leaving with senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar when Shibu Soren had to prove majority.
A year later BJP chief minister Arjun Munda came here along with 40 NDA legislators to keep his flock together fearing that opposition might poach some of them to topple his government.
