Rajasthan crisis: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat alleges CM Ashok Gehlot framing him to avenge son’s defeat - Report

Amidst the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, Union Jal Shakti Minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has alleged that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was framing him for the defeat of the latter's son, according to a report by The Times of India.

Shekhawat said that "a fabricated audio clip released last week by the Rajasthan Congress was engineered by chief minister Ashok Gehlot to avenge the defeat of his son in 2019".

The Jodhpur MP had defeated Gehlot's son and Congress candidate Vaibhav by about 2.7 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha polls 2019.

Get all the latest updates on the Rajasthan political crisis here

The minister, who is now at the centre of the raging controversy, told the publication that the contents of the tape were "malicious and defamatory".

"Neither the voice (in the recording) is mine, nor the accent. I have heard the entire conversation in the three audio clips. The person who is being referred to as 'Gajendra' has the accent of a man from the Sri Ganganagar region while I speak with a heavy Jodhpur Marwari accent. Second, it's laughable that content in the clip is being seen as seditious in nature."

Meanwhile, the Congress on Sunday demanded the resignation of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from the Union Cabinet, saying he has no moral authority to continue when he is heard on audio clips that suggest a BJP conspiracy to topple the government in Rajasthan.

Read: Do you want to become PM by joining BJP? Congress veteran Alva asks Pilot

Last week, the Congress had released three audio clips purportedly about horse-trading of legislators to topple the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan. Shekhawat was alleged to have been one of the three men doing the talking, the other two being Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma and Sanjay Jain.

On Friday, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police registered two FIRs under IPC sections 124-A (sedition) and 120-B (conspiracy) to probe into the complaint related to horse-trading of MLAs and the alleged audio recordings.

Also Read: Rajasthan political crisis: Congress says Ashok Gehlot confident of numbers, ready for floor test if required

The name 'Gajendra Singh' too featured in the FIR. To this Shekhawat said, "The source of the recording is unverifiable. The case is being built against me only to bully and instil fear in the minds of Congress MLAs held at the Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur by Gehlot to thwart a potential rebellion. There is no probe by the Rajasthan government regarding how and where that audio originated on social media or who recorded it. Instead of verifying the clip’s veracity, authenticity or even its source, CM Gehlot has chosen to send his state cops to record my statement and collect my voice sample out of vendetta for 2019. He wants to send a message to his MLAs that if he can frame a Union minister, he can frame them too.”