'BJP's condition will be worse than...': Rajasthan minister's gleeful prediction

“PM Modi came here yesterday. However, he kept abusing the Congress and talked nothing about the BJP's achievements,” the minister said.

Rajasthan minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas taunted prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party Thursday as the desert state preps for an Assembly election later this year. Khachariawas declared 'the condition of the BJP will be worse in Rajasthan in comparison to what happened in Karnataka' and vowed the BJP 'will vanish from Rajasthan'.

Rajasthan minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas(ANI)

Speaking a day after the prime minister's visit to Rajasthan's Ajmer - at which Modi accused chief minister Ashok Gehlot's administration of corruption - Khachariawas also criticised the BJP for having 'taken away' ex-Congress president Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership.

"Prime minister Narendra Modi came here yesterday. However, he kept abusing the Congress and talked nothing about the BJP's achievements," the Rajasthan minister said.

"BJP took away the membership of Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha after (he) spoke of the party's corruption. They lost the Karnataka election after this… Congress stands with everyone who raises an objection against the corrupt BJP," he declared.

What happened in Karnataka?

The BJP was in power in Karnataka - after the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government fell in 2019 - till last month, when the Congress secured a massive win.

The Congress won 135 of the state's 224 Assembly seats on a campaign that relied heavily on allegations of corruption in the BJP's government; the party's '40% sarkara' jibe - a reference to claims BJP ministers and officials used to demand a 40% commission from contractors.

READ | What is Congress' '40% commission' charge against Karnataka government?

The crisis exploded in April last year after the death (by suicide) of a contractor named Santosh Patil, who accused BJP leader and former minister KS Eshwarappa of extortion.

Modi's '85% commission' retort

In Ajmer on Wednesday the prime minister accused previous Congress governments of 'misguiding and depriving' the poor, and referred to '85% commission' that they had allegedly taken from money meant for development of the state.

READ | After Karnataka defeat, PM's '85% commission' jibe in Rajasthan

"We have given ₹29 lakh crore to the poor through direct benefit transfer. If Congress government would have been there, then ₹24 lakh crore would have been looted…"

READ | BJP closing corruption paths paved by Cong: Modi in poll-bound Rajasthan

"Congress takes a cut of 85% commission in every project. We were able to do development because we plugged the leakages created by the Congress," the prime minister declared.

Rahul Gandhi's disqualification: A recap

What happened to the top Congress leader? Rahul Gandhi was found guilty of criminal defamation by a court in Modi's home state of Gujarat. The then-Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Wayanad was convicted in the 2019 'Modi surname' case.