Jaipur: Congress in Rajasthan claimed that the Opposition cannot find issues with the state budget and therefore is creating an issue by BJPO MLAs returning the iPhones. It demanded that the BJP legislators must return all gifts they have received till now. This comes a day after Opposition in the state, BJP, asked its MLAs to return the iPhone they were gifted by the state government, PTI reports.
On Wednesday, the Rajasthan government presented all the 200 MLAs in the assembly with iPhone 13, following the presentation of the state budget. But BJP MLAs decided to return it, citing that it is a burden to the state exchequer.
Deputy chief whip Mahendra Chaudhary told the media that giving mobiles as a gift is not a severe issue, but if the MLAs decided to return them, they should do the same with the flats and iPads they received in the past. Congress MLA Krishna Poonia asked why the MPs think iPhones are a burden to the state but after receiving other gifts in the past. She said that the BJP MLAs accepted the phone happily the day before but decided to retune it the next day. They shouldn't have accepted them in the first place. The Opposition cannot find issues with the state budget and therefore is creating an issue, she claimed.
However, BJP state president Satish Poonia said that the decision to return them was taken after talks went with the leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria and deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore. The phones will be returned, he added
Out of the 200 MLA's in Rajasthan, 71 are BJP.
After the presentation of Budget MLAs and House ended, MLAs were given a briefcase, which contained the iPhone 13, which cost Rs 70,000 apiece.