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BJP to intensify campaign in Rajasthan
The BJP is taking heart from the internal rift in the Congress, between CM Gehlot and leader Sachin Pilot
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to organise a massive protest in Jaipur in July to target the Congress government in Rajasthan on issues such as corruption and deficiencies in governance, setting the stage for an all-out electoral contest between the two parties in the state where polls are due at the end of the year.
According to a senior party functionary, the Congress’ corruption and administrative lapses will be the mainstay of the BJP’s election campaign in the state, even though the issues of “minority appeasement” and “deterioration of law and order” will be flagged as well. “We are aiming to get five lakh people to gather and gherao the secretariat on a day in July that is yet to be finalised. This will highlight the Ashok Gehlot government’s failures and the rampant corruption in the state,” the senior functionary said.
The BJP is hoping to take a leaf from the Congress’s election campaign in Karnataka, where public anger against corruption was one of the key reasons for the former being ousted from power in the May election. A post poll analysis by the BJP showed that the Congress’ narrative about the government being corrupt leveraged through campaigns such as the “40% sarkara” and “PayCM” had an impact on the electoral outcome.
The BJP is also taking heart from the internal rift in the Congress, between CM Gehlot and leader Sachin Pilot on the issue of corruption. In May, Pilot announced he would launch a stir if the government failed to act on corruption charges in the state. He also led a five-day Jan Sangharsh Yatra in protest over the delay by the Gehlot government in addressing the issue. The two have since arrived at some understanding facilitated by the party’s central leadership.
By the end of this month, senior party leaders, including union home minister Amit Shah are expected to soft-launch the BJP’s campaign in the state, by addressing public meetings. A second functionary said the party has also lined up a series of public programmes that will be addressed by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. “The PM will be addressing rallies in the run up to the elections and is also expected to unveil central schemes for the state...” the second functionary said.
On Tuesday, BJP president JP Nadda, accused the Rajasthan government of diluting the quotas fixed for the OBC communities and “distributing it to the Muslim communities.” Nadda made a similar accusation against the TMC government in West Bengal and the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab. Referring to a report of the national commission for OBCs, which claims that OBC certification process has not been followed as per rules and several states including Rajasthan are not adhering to the reservation policy while recruiting for government jobs, Nadda said that in Rajasthan seven districts have been declared tribal areas, but reservation is not being given to other backward classes.
BJP national general secretary, Arun Singh, who is in charge of Rajasthan accused the Congress government of failing to address complaints of graft. “The government has broken all records of corruption. In the past three years, there has been a 22% increase in (cases of) corruption..,” he alleged.
There was no immediate reaction available from the Congress.
