In the run up to the crucial Assembly session in Rajasthan next week, the BJP too is now said to have started herding its MLAs, mostly from the tribal areas, fearing “poaching” by the Congress whose legislators have already been taken to Jaisalmer from Jaipur.

The BJP has decided to shift 12 of its Rajasthan MLAs to a resort on the outskirt of Ahmedabad and six others to another resort in Porbandar.

This even as six BSP MLAs moved the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking a transfer from Rajasthan High Court to it the matter pertaining to their merger with the Congress in the State.

The BSP as well as the BJP have challenged their merger. A Single-judge Bench of the High Court is likely to pronounce its judgment on the decision on their merger with the Congress on August 11.

State BJP president Satish Poonia said his party has information that the Congress was approaching BJP legislators in the Udaipur division through administrative officers and other influential people of the area. “So we decided that they should all be at one place where they can be protected,” Poonia maintained.

BJP leaders said they have evidence that the Congress was trying to lure its legislators, especially in the tribal belt of Mewar in southern Rajasthan. Some MLAs have been sent to Gujarat.

State Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, however, denied the BJP’s allegation even as he ruled out any threat to the existence of the Ashok Gehlot Government.

“We have alerted our MLAs and told them to be together,” Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said asserting that since the Gehlot Government is set to fall, the Congress is approaching BJP legislators for support.

Kataria hails from southern Rajasthan which has 28 Assembly seats of which the BJP has 15.

While the Congress has 10 seats, one is with an Independent MLA and two are with the Bharatiya Tribal Party which is supporting Gehlot.

In partial relief to the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress Government in Rajasthan, the Division Bench of the High Court had on Thursday disposed of appeals filed by a BJP MLA and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) against the order of a judge, who had refused to stay the functioning of six BSP MLAs as Congress legislators.

BJP MLA Madan Dilawar and BSP national secretary Satish Mishra had approached the Division Bench on Tuesday appealing against the Single-judge Bench order.