Rajasthan's local body elections have turned into a full-blown political contest, with the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress both throwing their full weight behind the campaign. Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot has now trained his guns on chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, accusing him of resorting to road shows because voters are seething with anger against his government.
Gehlot Says Road Shows Expose the Government's Nervousness
Gehlot argued that things should never have reached a point where a sitting chief minister has to personally lead road shows for elections to local self-government bodies, municipal councils or municipal corporations, polls that are usually contested at a much lower political pitch. He called this the government's single biggest weakness and said it exposes exactly how the state has been run over the past two and a half years. According to him, panic has pushed the BJP to fly in ministers and leaders from Delhi, Maharashtra and other states to campaign in Rajasthan. "They realise the public is very angry," Gehlot said, adding that these leaders were being brought in to calm that anger and mislead voters. He went further, saying that if the BJP loses these elections, it might finally wake the party up to the anger on the ground, and only then would its central leadership, its state-level functionaries and even what he called its "double-engine" government grasp the real situation.
Broken Roads, Stalled Property Leases and Corruption Charges
Gehlot said that after two and a half years in office, the government has grown visibly anxious about public resentment, and the sudden burst of road shows is a symptom of that anxiety. He alleged that cities across the state are in poor shape because of broken roads and a failing sewerage network, and that no real development work is taking place on the ground. He also accused the government of large-scale corruption, alleging it has gone beyond all limits. Gehlot predicted that if the BJP suffers a setback in these local polls, the government would be left with no option but to repair roads, distribute pending property leases known as pattas, and finally push through development work it has so far neglected.
CM Sharma's Multi-City Road Show Push
Chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, for his part, led a road show in Ajmer on Sunday to campaign for BJP candidates contesting the local body polls. A day earlier, on Saturday, he had held similar road shows in Udaipur and Bhilwara in support of BJP nominees, urging voters to elect the party's candidates in every single ward. Sharma maintained that a strong BJP showing in these elections would help speed up development work in the state's towns and cities. With both leaders trading claims and counter-claims just as counting approaches, the outcome of these municipal contests is being read as an early test of public mood ahead of bigger electoral battles in Rajasthan.
