PM Modi attacks Congress government in Rajasthan, says Gehlot has accepted defeat

Jaipur, October 2

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has already conceded defeat by asking him not to scrap the welfare schemes started by the Congress in Rajasthan, and gave a “guarantee” that the BJP will not discontinue any of them.

Addressing a public rally in Chittorgarh, his second in Rajasthan in a week, Modi gave a clear indication that no chief minister face will be projected right now. The BJP, he said, will contest the assembly election on the party’s election symbol ‘lotus’.

Before his address, Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth Rs 7,200 crore at another event in Rajasthan. He also offered prayers in the Sanwaliya temple.

Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, BJP state president CP Joshi, Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore and Union minister Arjun Meghwal were among the leaders present at the rally.

Gehlot had recently demanded that Modi should give a guarantee that the Congress government’s schemes will not be discontinued if the BJP comes to power in the state.

Reacting to this, the prime minister said, “Gehlot knows that the countdown of the Congress government has started. He in a way has congratulated the BJP by publicly requesting that welfare schemes should not be stopped. I assure you that the BJP will not stop any scheme of public interest but will try to improve it. This is Modi’s guarantee.”

Attacking the Gehlot government over corruption and women’s safety, Modi said it pains him whenever atrocities take place against daughters anywhere in the country. “But the Congress has made this a tradition here,” he charged.

The prime minister also said that the paper leak mafia in Rajasthan will be held accountable and given the harshest punishment.

Referring to tailor Kanhaiya Lal’s brutal murder in Udaipur last year, Modi asked whether the people of the state had voted for the Congress for this.

“People came on the pretext of getting clothes stitched, slit the throat of the tailor without any fear and made a video and made it viral. The Congress gets worried about votes in that too,” he said.

The prime minister alleged that it is not possible to celebrate any festival peacefully in Rajasthan because of the “anti-development” environment created by the Congress.

The BJP will bring prosperity, employment and development to the state besides ensuring the safety of women, he asserted.

Modi claimed that the Congress came to power in the state by lying to people but could not run the government. Chief Minister Gehlot was busy saving his chair while half of his own party was busy removing him for more than four years, he claimed.

There were conflicts within the Congress in Rajasthan but they had consensus when it came to loot, the prime minister alleged, adding that criminals, rioters and corrupt Congress leaders considered themselves the government and such a dispensation should not last even a day.

“Rajasthan has given a call. Will save Rajasthan, will bring BJP government,” he asserted.

Hitting out at the opposition INDIA alliance led by the Congress party, the prime minister alleged that they were saying insulting things about women.

He also made clear there were no factions in the BJP’s state leadership and it will contest the election under the party’s ‘lotus’ symbol.