Gehlot challenges Raje for debate on Congress’s poll guarantees
Gehlot said the guarantees, including the old pension scheme, purchase of cow dung at ₹2, laptops and tablets for college students, free English medium education, were the main poll issues
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday challenged his predecessor Vasundhara Raje of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a debate over the ruling Congress’s seven poll guarantees ahead of the November 25 assembly elections.
In a post on X, Gehlot said the guarantees, including the old pension scheme, purchase of cow dung at ₹2, laptops and tablets for college students, free English medium education, subsidized gas cylinders, were the main issues for the election. “I challenge Vasundhara Raje Scindia to have a debate with me...”
Raje on Thursday called it surprising that Congress, which does not have “a warranty”, has started giving guarantees. Addressing a BJP rally in Bilara, she said Gehlot has always hurt the public. “...now they are selling false dreams, but the public knows that these announcements of Congress at the last moment are misleading.”
She called five years of Congress rule a dark chapter. “There were screams of women and tears of farmers. The aspirations of the youth were thwarted and there were atrocities against Dalits.”
Rajasthan is going to the polls along with Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram between November 7 and 30. This will be the last major electoral exercise ahead of the 2024 elections.
The Congress wrested power from the BJP in the Hindi-speaking heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh months before the 2019 general elections. It is hoping to retain power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and form the government in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress lost power to the BJP in Madhya Pradesh in March 2020 after the resignations of 22 legislators.
