Jaipur, July 28: The political crisis in Rajasthan has deepened with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati launching an attack on Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. At a time when the CM is struggling to keep his numbers intact, the BSP has decided to move the Rajasthan High Court with a plea challenging the merger of "its six MLAs" with the Congress.

The petition will be tabled before the HC tomorrow, the party confirmed on Tuesday. The announcement came shortly after Mayawati, in her statement to the press, said she was waiting for the "right time" to teach Gehlot a lesson for breaking her party in Rajasthan and engineering a mass defection of her legislators. Rajasthan Political Crisis: BJP Petition Against Merger of BSP MLAs With Congress Dismissed by High Court.

The six MLAs - R Gudha, Lakhan Singh, Deep Chand, JS Awana, Sandeep Kumar and Wajib Ali - had won the elections in 2018 on the BSP ticket. In September last year, they defected en-masse to the Congress. The Speaker had approved their merger as the entire legislative party switched ranks.

BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra had, on Sunday, issued a "whip" directing the six legislators in Rajasthan to vote against the Gehlot government in case of a floor test. The defiance of whip would lead to their disqualification, the statement issued by the party warned.

The party, in its press release, further claimed that the merger with Congress last year was invalid as the BSP is a "recognised national party". Such a merger would be permitted only if the BSP integrates with the Congress in all states and at the Centre.

Notably, the Rajasthan HC had on Monday dismissed the petition filed by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar against the Speaker's decision to approve the merger of six BSP MLAs into the Congress.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 28, 2020 03:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).