Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday accused the Congress of enabling communal forces in the country. Her attack continued two days after after all six of her MLAs in Rajasthan joined the Congress.

“Communal forces in the country are becoming stronger because of the Congress Party’s policy of double standards,” the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said in a tweet. “Instead of weakening communal forces, the Congress party is engaged in weakening the forces raising their voice against it. People should remain careful.”

On Tuesday, Mayawati had said that the Congress had cheated and betrayed the BSP even when it had been extending unconditional outside support to its government in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had also attacked the Congress and said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot engineered the move to save his own post. “It is not for the first time that Gehlot has taken advantage of such political move,” Rajasthan BJP President Satish Poonia had said. “During his earlier term also, he managed to run his government in similar manner.”

However, Gehlot refuted horse-trading allegations and said the MLAs joined the party on their own. He had called the MLAs joining his party as “a switch for development”.

The six MLAs had written to Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi on Monday night, asking to merge the legislative party with Congress. The anti-defection law under the Tenth Schedule does not apply when more than two-thirds of a party’s strength defy the whip, so all six will remain MLAs.

The development raised the strength of the Congress to 106 in the 200-member Assembly. The government now has the support of 119 MLAs, including that of a Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA and 12 Independent MLAs.

The BSP had decided to support the Congress in the Assembly when it was one short of the majority mark of 101 after the Assembly elections last year.

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