BJP president Amit Shah, who is known to hit the right chords with his strategies for the election campaigns, on Sunday declared to address the youths in the poll-bound Rajasthan on November 21. Considering the elections stepping at the doorsteps in the state next month, it is believed to be a swift plan of action to rectify the flaws by the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Here, for BJP, the matter of concern is that will Amit Shah’s teeny-weeny effort before the polls be able to camouflage for Raje’s list of flops in the state? However, a few BJP leaders seemed to be reluctant about speaking up as they chose to remain tight-lipped on the same.
The main event will be held at Tagore School Auditorium in the state capital Jaipur where nearly 4,000 youths will participate. The event will be live streamed and Shah will take questions from the youths present there and other locations including Bharatpur, Udaipur, Kota, Jodhpur, Ajmer, and Bikaner will be registered beforehand and they will not be able to ask a question during the programme, Shah noted at a press conference. Apart from these places, town hall meetings will be held in other 200 locations across the state, Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore said. Nonetheless, the reports reveal that the questions can be asked only through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
The BJP ministers in a recent public address claimed that both central and state governments have expeditiously and transparently implemented developmental schemes in the last five years; they also accused Congress of indulging in what he termed was “vulture politics”. The party leaders also insisted that the Rajasthan government has taken various labour reforms to boost investment and industrial production besides creating job opportunities in the state and progressing as fast as a developing state by shedding away the ‘Bimaru tag’.
Vivek Singh, a businessman from Mumbai expressed, “I visited Rajasthan just a week back and stayed there for a couple of days. I feel really disappointed to say that I saw no such infrastructural development that the incumbent government claims. While cities like Udaipur and Jaipur will look very developed at first glance, but the reality will struck you if you go towards a little interior side. The roads are difficult to walk on and I saw women walking long to get drinking water. I wonder how the most interior parts of the state are living their lives!”
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on November 17 filed her nomination papers from Jhalrapatan. Along with that, BJP also released its third list of eight candidates for the Rajasthan assembly election which fielded Surendra Pal Singh from Karanpur.
Rajasthan (Karanpur) BJP Minister Surendra Pal exclaimed, “Rajasthan has seen a massive progress under the BJP rule and youth in the state are full of praises for the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have 100 per cent fulfilled the previous manifesto. Those who are accusing the BJP government might not have received the benefits but there are many who’ve been beneficial. We will definitely work for the rest in the upcoming years as per our election manifesto and we will undoubtedly win the Assembly Election!”
In a reaction to BJP’s step, the Congress immediately on the same day, released its third list of 18 candidates for the ensuing Rajasthan Assembly elections. The party has fielded among others Amit Chachan from Lohar, BD Kalla from Bikaner West in place of Yashpal Gehlot, who will be contesting from Bikaner East in place of Kanhaiyalal Jhawar etc.
A few days ago, former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, who will be contesting the Assembly polls in reply to BJP’s proclamation, targeted Raje for deliberately bringing to halt, curtailing, and destroying many welfare schemes such as free medicines schemes, pensions for the marginalised sections, loan relief for farmers, incentives for the rural poor, financial assistance for cattle sector, etc. those were brought by the previous Congress state government that brought a lot of relief to various sections of the poor of Rajasthan.
Congress leader Gurmeet Singh Kunnar asserted, “Amit Shah can bring no change to the mindset of Rajasthan youth and his address will fail to gather a crowd. The former Congress government in the state brought really beneficial welfare schemes for the youth and farmers. Before getting into the power, BJP promised to give more facilities to the citizens — be it increasing farmers’ income, employment opportunities to the youth, free medicines, better infrastructure, or crediting Rs 15 lakhs to each bank account — the people have got nothing while inflation and costly fuel have made their lives difficult. This time, the voters are not going to be influenced with all their jumlas.”
It strikes across that the BJP and Congress both are leaving no stones unturned to gear up with its electoral agenda before the elections to lure the voters. The Assembly polls in Rajasthan will be held on December 7.
Twinkle Mehta & Moumita Mukherjee
