Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has asked her party members to understand that the lotus is the BJP’s candidate and not individuals so that there is no fight over ticket distribution for the upcoming polls. She made these remarks on Sunday during a meeting of the party workers at Ranakpur in Pali district. Raje said the workers have the right to claim tickets from the party, but their targets should be to ensure the victory of the party.
The meeting was attended by the BJP workers from 31 assembly constituencies, including those from Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Jodhpur and Sriganganagar. Raje along with core committee members and election management committee members took feedback from the workers on the probable names for the 31 seats. The workers submitted their suggestions to the CM in sealed envelopes.
Taking a jibe at an alleged rift in Congress between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, she said that the BJP would retain power because of its unity, while the Congress was a divided house.
The rural development, panchayati raj and parliamentary affairs minister Rajendra Rathore was also present at the event. He said that decision of tickets will be based on the suggestion of party workers and no parachute candidates would be given tickets. Earlier, in September Congress President Rahul Gandhi had said the same thing on his first visit to campaign for the upcoming elections in the state.
Targeting Congress’ regime in the state Raje said the BJP has done more development work in the past five years in the state than the Congress in 50 years. She further said that even Congress had acknowledged the BJP government’s welfare schemes lest Ashok Gehlot would not have agreed to continue with the current schemes, if his party comes to power.
Some of the other leaders present at the event were State in charge Avinash Rai Khanna, BJP joint general secretary (organisation) V Satish, general secretary (organisation) Chandrasekhar, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, state ministers Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajendra Rathore Arun Chaturvedi and Yunus Khan, and senior leaders Om Mathur, Satish Poonia and Ashok Parnami .
The leaders will meet workers from different constituencies in Ranakpur till October 17. The next meeting is scheduled in Jaipur from October 20 to 23.