The Congress will launch a campaign in 11 districts of Rajasthan next month to galvanise public opinion against the government of Vasundhara Raje, who stands accused of helping fallen IPL chief Lalit Modi, party state chief Sachin Pilot said on Monday.
The campaign will highlight what Pilot said was below-par performance of the Raje government and may also see Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi join it at some stage.
Raje’s government, which came to power after winning four-fifths majority in state elections in 2013, shook up land, labour and welfare policies that was hailed by free-market flag-bearers as a benchmark for the rest of the country.
But since then Raje has become embroiled in the controversy over her help to Modi to secure UK immigration. Raje’s son, Dushyant Singh, is also said to have business links with Modi, who fled India in 2010 and is wanted by investigating agencies in several alleged cases of fraud and money laundering.
“We will take the issue to the people who are losing confidence in this government,” Pilot said at an HT Unplugged event with the newspaper’s senior editors.
“Expectations were very high from this government, but after a year-and-half they have no achievement they can tout. This is an under-performing government which has made no impact with its so-called reforms.” He said the reform measures of the Raje government were carried out without any consultations with various stakeholders, “bulldozing the entire democratic process involved in such decisions”.
{{/usCountry}}“Expectations were very high from this government, but after a year-and-half they have no achievement they can tout. This is an under-performing government which has made no impact with its so-called reforms.” He said the reform measures of the Raje government were carried out without any consultations with various stakeholders, “bulldozing the entire democratic process involved in such decisions”.
{{/usCountry}}Pilot said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was losing the public perception battle by defending Raje “who has lost all moral, ethical rights” to continue as chief minister. “One state leader has taken the prime minister of the country hostage,” he said, referring to the BJP’s dilemma over action against Raje.