NEW DELHI: Ashok Gehlot on Monday questioned the delay by the BJP in deciding its chief minister for Rajasthan and accused the saffron party of trying to divert attention from this issue by organising protests over IT raids against an Odisha-based distillery company, owned by a Congress MP’s family.
“It has been 8 days since the results of assembly elections have been announced, but the BJP has not been able to select its chief minister.To divert attention from this, they are holding protests over IT raids at the house of a Rajya Sabha member. The IT department should immediately issue a bulletin to clarify the details and let the law take its own course,” the outgoing chief minister of Rajasthan wrote on X.
“The BJP should tell how long people of the state will have to spend anxious moments to know who would be their chief minister and how long will the welfare schemes be impacted,” he added.
The Rajasthan assembly election results were announced to December 3 along with four other states that went to the polls last month. The BJP won 115 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly with a vote share of 41.7%. The Congress under Ashok Gehlot could manage only 69 seats with 39.5% of votes. The saffron party is likely to announce its chief minister tomorrow amid reports that the state may get a new line of leadership. Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who is one of the frontrunners for the top job, was in Delhi last week where she met BJP chief JP Nadda.
This is not the first time that Ashok Gehlot has targeted the BJP over the delay in deciding on the new chief minister. Last week, Gehlot criticized the BJP’s delay in announcing CM faces for three Hindi heartland states and said “there is no discipline in this party.”
“If we had done the same, I don’t know what allegations they would have levelled against us and misled people. In the Gogamedi case, I had to sign a document stating ‘no objection’ to an NIA probe. This should have been done by the new CM. For seven days now, they (BJP) have not been able to select a CM; I want them to take a decision quickly,” he had said.
The IT raid Gehlot was referring to has been the talking point as it has led to cash seizure of Rs 351 crore, which is the “highest-ever” haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country. The premises of the Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, in Ranchi and other places, were also covered during the searches by the department. The marathon raids against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters and others, launched on December 6 by the taxman on charges of tax evasion and “off-the-book” transactions, continued for 5 days.
“It has been 8 days since the results of assembly elections have been announced, but the BJP has not been able to select its chief minister.To divert attention from this, they are holding protests over IT raids at the house of a Rajya Sabha member. The IT department should immediately issue a bulletin to clarify the details and let the law take its own course,” the outgoing chief minister of Rajasthan wrote on X.
“The BJP should tell how long people of the state will have to spend anxious moments to know who would be their chief minister and how long will the welfare schemes be impacted,” he added.
The Rajasthan assembly election results were announced to December 3 along with four other states that went to the polls last month. The BJP won 115 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly with a vote share of 41.7%. The Congress under Ashok Gehlot could manage only 69 seats with 39.5% of votes. The saffron party is likely to announce its chief minister tomorrow amid reports that the state may get a new line of leadership. Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who is one of the frontrunners for the top job, was in Delhi last week where she met BJP chief JP Nadda.
This is not the first time that Ashok Gehlot has targeted the BJP over the delay in deciding on the new chief minister. Last week, Gehlot criticized the BJP’s delay in announcing CM faces for three Hindi heartland states and said “there is no discipline in this party.”
“If we had done the same, I don’t know what allegations they would have levelled against us and misled people. In the Gogamedi case, I had to sign a document stating ‘no objection’ to an NIA probe. This should have been done by the new CM. For seven days now, they (BJP) have not been able to select a CM; I want them to take a decision quickly,” he had said.
The IT raid Gehlot was referring to has been the talking point as it has led to cash seizure of Rs 351 crore, which is the “highest-ever” haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country. The premises of the Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, in Ranchi and other places, were also covered during the searches by the department. The marathon raids against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters and others, launched on December 6 by the taxman on charges of tax evasion and “off-the-book” transactions, continued for 5 days.