Former deputy CM Sachin Pilot asserted at the AICC headquarters here that the BJP is on the backfoot, using the agencies to frighten the Congress leaders since it smells defeat in the Assembly elections as otherwise no reason for it to let loose ED and other agencies in violation of the election code of conduct in vogue in the state.
The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly is to go to the polls on November 25 and the counting takes place on December 3, along with four other states undergoing the elections.
Pilot said the Congress is trying to win the Assembly elections in all five states and that will pave way for the Congress-led INDIA alliance to sweep the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The BJP is frightened as it is misusing the agencies to create a fear among the Congress leaders but it will not succeed since the Congress is fighting collectively.
In reply to a question on forget and forgive by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge advice to him, he said the Congress is contesting the elections on the strength of five years of achievements and campaigning with confidence, while the BJP has nothing to show in this Assembly elections.
At a parallel press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat dismissed the charge of misuse of the agencies as he said the ED had raided the premises of Dotasara in Jaipur and Sikar as part of the money laundering probe into the exam paper leak case.
He also justified the ED summons to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son in a foreign exchange violation case. He accued Gehlot and other Congress leaders trying to politicise the probe agency’s actions out of “frustration.”
“Ashok Gehlot is frustrated with actions against corruption because his government has broken all limits of corruption. His own party leaders, MLAs, advisers and ministers have said that this is the most corrupt government of the century,” Shekhawat affirmed.
He said a series of government recruitment exam paper leaks took place in Rajasthan putting the future of lakh of youths in the dark, but the Gehlot governmeent kept covereing up the corruption, denying role of his government officials and political persons and giving them clean chit to stop the investigations.
“Retired Rajastan anti-corruption bureau chief BL Soni had admitted that the government had used to stop him from catching the big fishes. Now when ED has started taking action against the big fishes, definitely those sitting in the government find the ground under their feet shaking,” Shekhawat said.
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