Rajasthan: Congress MLA Giriraj Singh Malinga claims he refused Sachin Pilot’s Rs 35-crore offer to join BJP

Rajasthan: Congress MLA Giriraj Singh Malinga claims that Sachin Pilot offered him Rs 35 crore to join BJP.

Rajasthan Congress MLA Giriraj Singh Malinga, who switched sides from the Bahujan Samaj party to join the Congress, has claimed that former deputy CM Sachin Pilot had offered him money to switch from the ruling party to the opposition BJP. According to his claim, Pilot had offered him Rs 35 crore to switch from Congress to BJP. The MLA, however, said that he declined the offer and informed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot about it.

According to his claim, the incident took place in December and again before the Rajasthan Rajya Sabha elections.

“I was offered Rs 35 crore by Sachin Pilot to rebel against Ashok Gehlot. The meeting happened at his residence. He made the offer ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections and wanted me to switch sides. A similar offer was made in December too. I refused and informed Ashok Gehlot,” Malinga said.

Malinga represents the Bari constituency in Dholpur. He was among the BSP MLAs who had merged with the Congress in 2009. He was re-elected on a Congress ticket in 2013 and 2018 from Bari. Dholpur is considered BJP leader and former CM Vasundhara Raje’s stronghold.

Reacting to Malinga’s charge, CM Gehlot said the game played by Sachin Pilot was very unfortunate. “It has never happened in history where a party chief was trying to topple his own government.

“This will be suicidal for BJP for next election also,” the Chief Minister said.

The Congress government in Rajasthan plunged into a political crisis last week after Sachin Pilot’s open rebellion against Ashok Gehlot. The Congress sacked Pilot as deputy CM and party’s state unit chief. Pilot, who was among 19 MLAs to have been served disqualification notices by the Assembly Speaker, has dragged the Congress to court challenging the move. A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court is currently hearing the matter.