Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], November 23 (ANI): Ahead of the November 25 assembly elections, Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who was best known for his run-ins with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot throughout the latter’s term in office, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) needs to stop worrying about him.
“The BJP does not have much to show on their report card. Everyone is able to see the chaos in the Rajasthan BJP and they are saying these things to hide their own problems. They should stop worrying about me. My party and the people will worry about me,” Pilot said while speaking to ANI on the last day of the campaign in Rajasthan.
Pilot said that the BJP wants to divert the debate from issues of development to “sensitive issues”.
“I am very positive about the result. Currently, our issue is the development of the state. The BJP has always had the agenda of diverting attention to sensitive issues. The debate should be on youth, development, security, youth, education, medical service and road development. They are saying all this to prevent debate on these issues,” the former Deputy Chief Minister said.
Pilot said that Rajasthan will buck the trend of changing governments every five years and vote the present Congress government back to power. The state has been voting their incumbent governments out of power in every Assembly election since 1998.
“This time, people want to change the trend. The trend has always been five years of BJP rule, followed by five years of Congress. This time, people want the Congress government to be formed again. The BJP has been ruling the country for 10 years and people want change. The Congress workers are also more energised this time by Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and their win in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka,” the senior Congress leader said.
Speaking about his late father, Rajesh Pilot, he said, “After working in the Air Force, when Rajesh Pilot met Indira Gandhi, he was inspired to enter politics. Till the time he was alive, he had always fought against communal forces and served the nation through Congress.”
The former Rajasthan Pradesh Congress chief said that in a big state like Rajasthan, one needs to contest unitedly and they have done so in 2018 as well.
“This is a big state and we are contesting unitedly. I said this earlier in 2018 when I was the Pradesh Congress president. We fought the election unitedly and won. No one individual can win or lose an election on his own. Until the time when the entire team or the family comes together, we cannot win. In 2018, we fought unitedly and won. We are fighting the election this time with full strength,” Pilot said.
The Tonk MLA said that while it has been the tradition of the Congress to fight the polls unitedly, the BJP has always projected a “CM face” but it has not done so in Rajasthan this time.
“Congress has always contested the election on its ideology and the manifesto. There has never been a culture of declaring the CM face in advance. After winning the election, the party leadership decides who will get the responsibility. The BJP does so. BJP declares a face every time but this time they have declared no CM face. One should ask why?” Pilot said.
Speaking about the issues he had with the Congress leadership earlier, he said, “The issues I had were not with any person, I had issues with principles. We did a course correction and the party benefited from it. Today, we can say that we will be coming back to power. We could not say so in the last 30 years. This is because we took some steps. We framed a law after the party gave importance to paper leak. We inserted life-term imprisonment in the law. We had no Dalit Minister earlier; now we have four. The issues that I raised were treated with importance by the party and the government got its results from it.”
Rajasthan is set for assembly polls on November 25, with votes to be counted on December 3. Of the 200 assembly seats, 199 will be contested on November 25, as elections in the Karanpur constituency were adjourned due to the passing of the Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar. In 2018, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP won 73. (ANI)
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