Rajasthan witnesses high-voltage campaigning as countdown begins for polls

Jaipur: With Rajasthan set to witness assembly polls on Saturday,the star campaigners from BJP and Congress held rallies and launched attacks at each other. BJP has been persistently accusing the Congress of appeasement over vote bank politics while Rahul Gandhi sharpened its attack on the BJP bringing in the Adani issue and and terming the party's top brass "pickpocketers".

When BJP marked its campaigning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the lead and joined by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president JP Nadda, Congress brought in party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and party MP Rahul Gandhi to light up the campaigning battle.

Addressing a public meeting at Rajasthan's Ramgarh, the BJP national chief urged the people to give Narendra Modi a third straight term as prime minister in next year's general elections in the interest of making the country the third-largest global economy by 2027-28.
While, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot emphasized the importance of repeating the current government, and highlighted his tenure's achievements, fulfilling ten guarantees, and promised to implement seven more if voted back into power.
Drawing parallels with how pickpocketer and their teams operate, Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and industrialist Gautam Adani work in tandem to "loot the public" in the country.

Addressing an election rally in Bharatpur, Rahul Gandhi said, "The pickpocketer never comes alone, there are three people. One comes from the front, one from the back and one sees from the distance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's job is to divert your attention. He comes on TV from the front and distracts the public by raising topics of Hindu-Muslim, demonetization, and GST. Meanwhile, Adani comes from behind and takes the money."
"Amit Shah is the third person. His role is to supervise. He ensures no one should know about what is happening," he added.
Addressing a public rally in Bhilwara's Shahpura of Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again hit out at the Congress leadership, accusing it of indulging in 'dynastic' politics and said that the grand old party strives to 'punish' its leader Sachin Pilot for his father's revolt against high command in 1996.

While taking a dig at the BJP for asking the people of Rajasthan to make a "double engine" government in the state along with the centre, Priyanka Gandhi said that the Prime Minister had all the time to watch the cricket World Cup final, he did not find any time to visit Manipur which has been ridden with violence for the last so many months.

She added that their engines were already running out of steam in states like Madhya Pradesh and also at the centre.
Comparing the governance of BJP and Congress, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the policies of PM Modi have taken the country's economy from 11th to 5th position globally while Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is repeatedly engaged in relaunching her son Rahul Gandhi in politics.

"Modi ji launches Chandrayaan while Sonia ji wants to launch her son. She launched Rahul ji 20 times but this vehicle is such that it does not get launched at all," mocked Amit Shah while addressing an election rally in Rajasthan's Raniwara.
"The people of Rajasthan have leaked the Gehlot-led Rajasthan government's paper. Congress is going on 3rd December and BJP is coming. Congress party and Gandhi family are Rahu and Ketu of India. All the troubles that have arisen in the future of India have happened only because of the Gandhi family and Congress," Shah added.

Highlighting the BJP's efforts, Shah mentioned, "It was the BJP that made the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) a constitutional body. We also gave the nation its first OBC Prime Minister. Congress never worked for backward communities; they only made false promises to them."

Amit Shah further hit out at the Gehlot government and said that he had never seen a more corrupt government in his entire life.
"I never witnessed such a corrupt government in my life. Once a BJP government is formed here which will have the vision of PM Modi, we will open an investigation and all these corrupt people will be punished," he said.
PM today further sharpened his attack on the Congress party and said that a big danger is hovering over Rajasthan's culture due to the path of polarisation taken by Congress.

"A big danger is hovering over Rajasthan's culture. The road that the Congress has taken for polarisation will lead Rajasthan towards devastation," the PM said.
Asserting that the inflation was due to the wrong policies of the central government, Priyanka Gandhi pointed out, that the petroleum prices had come down in the international market and still, the central government had not reduced these in the country.

Reiterating her charge that the BJP governments were working for the big industrialists, Priyanka said, that when it comes to waiving off the debts of farmers, the government says it does not have money, while it has waived off lakhs of crores of debt of big industrialists. Not just that, she added, it has also handed over ports and airports to Adani.
She said, Congress in comparison works for the poor, for the farmers, for the small traders and shopkeepers. She pointed out, that the Congress government had waived off the debts of farmers.

Rajasthan is set for assembly polls on November 25, with votes to be counted on December 3.
Of the 200 assembly seats, 199 will be contested on November 25, as elections in the Karanpur constituency were adjourned due to the passing of the Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh KoonarIn 2018, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP won 73.
Gehlot assumed the CM position with the support of BSP MLAs and Independents.