If BJP keeps Speaker post, TDP and JD(U) should be ready to see horse-trading of MPs: Gehlot

Jaipur: Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot alleged Wednesday that if BJP keeps the Lok Sabha Speaker post, its alliance partners TDP and JD(U) should be prepared to witness horse-trading of their MPs.

If the BJP does not have the intention to do anything undemocratic in the future, it should give the Speaker's post to one of its allies, the Congress leader said.

Following the principle of coalition, during the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government from 1998 to 2004, the Speaker was from the TDP and the Shiv Sena and in the UPA government from 2004 to 2009, the Speaker was from the CPI(M) and the Lok Sabha was managed well, he said.

"Not just TDP and JD(U), but the people of the entire country are eagerly watching the election to the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker. If BJP does not have the intention to do anything undemocratic in the future, it should give the Speaker's post to one of its allies," Gehlot said in Hindi on 'X'.

"TDP and JD(U) should not forget the conspiracies hatched by the BJP to topple governments in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. In many of these states, the government fell and parties split due to the role played by the Speaker," he added.

Gehlot said that in 2019, four out of six Rajya Sabha MPs of the TDP joined the BJP and the party could do nothing.

"Now if the BJP keeps the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker with itself, the TDP and JD(U) should be ready to see horse-trading of their MPs," he added.