JAIPUR: Chief minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that zila parishad, panchayat samiti election results in Rajasthan have been projected as a big win for the BJP to divert the attention from the farmers’ agitation.
He said Union ministers have spread lies by holding press conference to fade the farmers’ movement on the orders of the BJP high command. He said the BJP’s claim has been proved wrong in the analysis of data.
Chief minister in a statement said the Congress has got more votes than the BJP in the elections held in 222 panchayat samitis in 21 districts. The Congress got 40.87% votes, while BJP polling percentage is 40.58% votes. Congress got 0.29% more votes than the BJP, he said.
Gehlot said, Congress and BJP are at par with 98 pradhans each, while 26 had gone to other parties in the election for 222 panchayat samitis. In 2015, the BJP had won in 112 panchayat samitis, while Congress only 67. The number of Congress chiefs has already gone up by 31, while the number of BJP number has been decreased by 14 in the current election, said the chief minister.
He said compared to voting percentage of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, the vote percentage of the saffron party has fallen by about 18% in 18 months. The BJP in the last zila parishad election had won in 14 with more wards than this time, he said.
BJP president Satish Poonia reacting to the claim of Gehlot said the statistics is used in such way to turn defeat into victory. He said Government has lost the mandate, now keep clarifying.
Gehlot pointed out that national president of BJP J P Nadda, Union home minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of many states went to campaign to Hyderabad municipal election and violated the corona protocol which shows their thinking. This shows that the BJP can compromise the life of the common man to win the election, alleged the chief minister.
During the corona, the entire focus of the Rajasthan government was on epidemic prevention. Therefore, the Congress did not send state-central level leaders to campaign in these elections so that the crowd does not gather, to stop the spread of the epidemic. At the same time, even the Union minister of BJP got down to campaign in these elections.
When our whole focus was on saving lives and livelihood, then politics was necessary for BJP leaders. He said Union ministers and party leaders campaigned in violation of corona protocols.