BJP IS SCARED, HENCE THEY ARE COMING HERE: GEHLOT

Jaipur: Hours before BJP’s meeting of national office bearers, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said the party is holding the conclave in the state as it is scared after the Congress organised its ‘Chintan shivir’ in Udaipur recently. He said as soon as the Congress’ ‘Chintan Shivir’ was announced, the BJP also decided to hold its meeting in Jaipur.

“They are scared and therefore they are coming here,” he said, while exuding confidence that the people of the state will vote for Congress in the next assembly elections. Targeting the saffron party for its agenda of Hindutva, the chief minister said the BJP is doing politics in the name of Hindus and have become arrogant under the impression that they have their support. “They are just misleading in the name of Hindutva. This will backfire. This is not in the interest of the public,” Gehlot said.

He said during the Congress rule, resignations from chief ministers and Union ministers were sought when allegations were made (against them) as the leadership used to care about what people will think.

“But these (BJP) people do not care about what people say,” he said. He also alleged that the communal tension in state’s Karauli in April was “pre-planned”. “Be it Karauli or Jodhpur, where communal tension broke out in the recent past, the police controlled the situation and riots were not allowed to happen.

Whatever happened in 1 hour at Karauli, shops were burnt in 1 hour because that work was done in a planned manner. Senior leaders of BJP are the main accused in it, but for 20 days, Karauli was the main news across the country because it is on their agenda that elections are coming in the state, how to defame the state government,” Gehlot said.

He reiterated that an atmosphere of tension is there in the country so that the public attention can be diverted from the real issues of inflation and unemployment. Gehlot also said that increase in crime, incidents of paper leaks etc. were the result of unemployment and it is the responsibility of both the Centre and state govts to provide jobs to youths. “The question papers are being leaked in states across the country. Recently, papers were leaked in Bihar and Punjab. A gang is operating in country, it is also a result of unemployment. Unemployment remains an issue, crime that is being committed, rapes are being committed, to a large extent, there is a reason behind it that when person is in frustration, he commits crime, takes drugs,” he said.