"Anti-incumbency has found no room in our system. People's aspirations were met in spite of the challenges and the government eventually delivered," says Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in an exclusive interview to Rediff.com
The Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power in Rajasthan on Sunday, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.
A deadly collision involving a gas tanker and multiple vehicles turned a stretch of the Jaipur-Ajmer highway here into an inferno on Friday morning, killing seven people, injuring more than 35 and engulfing over 30 vehicles in flames as thick black smoke filled the sky.
"Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi trust our words and reports. Why don't senior BJP leaders like Amit Shah or Dharmendra Pradhan visit Baran or anywhere in the state to know what actually is the ground reality," Gehlot told PTI.
The Congress has said the assembly polls results were "unexpected" and have alleged discrepancies in the EVMs in some seats.
Since 1993, when the BJP came to power after a stint of President's rule, the state has alternated between the Congress and the BJP.
What he has said is shocking and shameful, former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, noting that the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has repeated his remarks.
The Congress had taken action against them on July 17 after three audio tapes allegedly pertaining to the conspiracy to topple the government surfaced.
Scindia had left the Congress a few months back and joined the BJP as he believed that he was being marginalised by senior party leaders in Madhya Pradesh.
Congress observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken on Monday briefed party president Sonia Gandhi about the developments in Rajasthan and are expected to submit a written report about the crisis in the party's state unit latest by Tuesday.
He also said Pilot should have raised his demand for action in cases of alleged corruption by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government during a debate in the Rajasthan assembly, instead of holding a day-long fast on the issue.
On the eve of the Haryana assembly poll results, the issue of chief minister-ship has taken centre stage in the Congress with all eyes on its high command's next move as the party expects to regain power after 10 years in the state.
In veiled criticism of the Ashok Gehlot government on Tuesday, Congress leader Sachin Pilot called for zero tolerance to incidents like the recent killing of a Dalit boy and called for action against local officials for an alleged lathi-charge on the victim's family.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed her nomination papers in Jaipur for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan police early on Friday removed the widows of the three CRPF jawans killed in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack from the protest site outside Congress leader Sachin Pilot's house here and shifted them to hospitals near their respective residential areas.
Sources close to the Congress leader said he was doing fine.
The 369 foot tall Shiva statue can be seen from 20 kilometres away.
While the two MLAs will abstain in the event of a trust vote in the assembly, it is, however, not a withdrawal of support.
The Congress has decided to shift its MLAs in Rajasthan to a Udaipur hotel, with party sources saying they fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party will poach them ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections.
Ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the Congress government on Saturday night issued an order for the conduct of a caste survey in the state.
The discussions are mostly one-on-one, party insiders said on Thursday, a day of many meetings.
In the last six assembly elections, the state voted the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress to power alternately.
Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, the party said in a statement.
If alcohol-based sanitisers can kill coronavirus on the hands, there is no reason why alcoholic drinks may not kill the virus in tipplers' throats, a Congress MLA has argued, seeking the reopening of liquor shops in Rajasthan. Congress MLA Bharat Singh Kundanpur put forward the argument in all seriousness in his letter written to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday, urging him to open liquor shops in the state.
Gehlot said be it Adani or Amit Shah's son Jay Shah, Rajasthan will welcome all because it wants investment and employment.
The Jats are a political force in Rajasthan and the community's presence in 85 assembly constituencies may tilt the balance in electoral politics.
Senior party leaders, including the Congress' Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra and co-in-charges Qazi Muhammad Nizamuddin, Amrita Dhawan and Virendra Rathore were present at a meeting at the party's Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Road office in New Delhi, during which they are likely to discuss Pilot's march.
Amid reports of a crisis in the Rajasthan Congress government, senior party leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday expressed concerns over the direction in which the party is heading.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Vasundhara Raje and Pradesh Congress Committee president Chandrabhan were among 861 candidates who filed their nomination papers for the Assembly elections on Monday.
Pilot, who spent around an hour at Gandhi's residence where Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal was also present, said he conveyed his sentiments and gave his feedback to the party president.
An unease has set in the Rajasthan Congress with its senior leader Ajay Maken quitting as the state in-charge ahead of the assembly polls scheduled next year, with party sources saying that he has been asked to continue on the post.
The long-pending land dispute between Bahadur Gurjar and Atar Singh Gurjar, both residents of Adda village, was being investigated by Sadar police station, Director General of Police Umesh Mishra said.
Congress candidates Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari were elected to the Rajya Sabha, according to a tweet by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Gehlot said the CAA is against the Constitution and divides people in the name of religion.
A video purportedly of a meeting of the Congress MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has surfaced.
The committee, of which Mukul Wasnik is the convener and has former chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel as well as Mohan Prakash and Salman Khurshid in it, held final talks and suggested the way forward to the party leadership.
An "undercurrent" seems to have worked against Congress in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot conceded on Sunday, saying though the welfare schemes of his government were good the opposition had managed to create an "incorrect" impression in the minds of the voter.
The Congress central leadership's decision to send former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot to work for the party in Gujarat is a strategic one, say Congress sources.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted fresh searches in poll-bound Rajasthan as part of its money laundering investigation into the alleged Jal Jivan Mission scam.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot's 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra' on the issues of corruption and government recruitment exam paper leaks continued to draw support from people on its fourth day on Sunday.
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