JAIPUR: A day before his swearing-in ceremony as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot has requested the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to treat the three newly elected Congress governments on par with the BJP ruled states. Gehlot also asked for a clear assurance from Modi in the matter and added that he should tweet his support to Congress governments.
He said, "PM Modi should tweet and say that even if it is not BJP governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the central government will extend its full support to Congress governments. Now it is not their party in power in the states, but they should behave with us exactly the same way they had behaved with their own party governments...this should be the Prime Minister's first tweet to us."
Congress has a lot of promises to fulfill after forming the government. The promise of waiving off the farmer loans within 10 days will push the exchequer behind by Rs 99,000 crore rupees. The party had also promised that they will give the unemployed youth Rs 3,500 rupees per month, which seems improbable after Vasundhara Raje's government has left behind a loan of Rs three lakh crore on the state, said the Congress leader.
Gahlot criticised Raje by saying she did not work for the development of the state because she was constantly in a power struggle with Modi and Amit Shah.
He further said, "the challenges are in front of us and everybody knows the pathetic financial condition of the state that Vasundhara Raje has left us with. I have constantly said in my campaign that it was her callousness that has deteriorated the condition of the state. BJP had a majority but they were insecure. She had the experience of being the Chief Minister before and could have done well for the state after forming the government with a clear majority but she did not."
Gehlot also said that there were so many issues in 2003, when she came to power but this time the only issue was Raje's incompetance.