In 1998, on Congress high command’s recommendation, he was appointed as the chief minister of Rajasthan, because of his proximity to the Gandhi family. He pipped people-popular leader Parasram Maderna to the coveted post. The fortune smiled on him again, when he outsmarted Congress general secretary CP Joshi in 2008. Joshi—a personal favourite of Rahul Gandhi lost his seat by just one vote. Any guesses who we’re talking about? He’s the 65-year-old former chief minister of Rajasthan, whose differences with PCC chief Sachin Pilot and Joshi are well known. To top it, he isn’t popular among the self-reliant, independent people of Rajasthan.
Yes, we’re talking about Ashok Gehlot, a politician who’s known for his scams, scandals and freebies, basically everything that is controversial. His days in Rajasthan politics are numbered because of current Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje’s growing popularity in state. To top it, Gehlot threw an open challenge of public referendum at Raje last year– an utterly stupid move for a leader, who’s disliked by his own comrades. Gehlot said if Raje wins the upcoming 2018 Rajasthan assembly elections, he’ll quit politics. Knowing that Raje’s victory is an inevitable truth, Gehlot should voluntarily quit politics to save his face later, in the light of a humiliating defeat.
We’ll give you not one but five reasons as to why Ashok Gehlot must quit politics.
- Ashok Gehlot may look like a sincere, down-to-earth person with his ears to the ground, but one just can’t ignore the fact that his ‘ground-breaking’ schemes and expensive projects (for example, Jaipur Metro) did not yield any substantial benefits to the state.
- Controversy’s favourite child, Gehlot, is often linked with multi-million scams and scandals. Ambulance scam, Jodhpur Mine scam, advertisement scam, Jai Narayan Vyas University scam—the list is endless. He’s the reason behind 80,000-crore debt on state DISCOMS. Due to his controversial image, the ruling Congress suffered an appalling defeat in 2013 state assembly elections.
- Unlike CM Vasundhara Raje, Gehlot is neither charming nor a commanding orator that appeals to the masses. Hailing from a humble origin, her uses his ‘lineage’ to project himself as a leader of the ‘common men’.
- Back in 2012, he launched a slew of ‘free’ schemes in his election year to retain power over Rajasthan public. It’s his bad luck that the self-reliant, self-dependent people of Rajasthan rejected his attempts and went for Raje, who clearly believes in ‘Swabhimaan ki Raajneeti’.
- Most of his speeches and campaigns focus on defaming CM Raje. Rather than crafting practical state policies, he’s busy highlighting the flaws of BJP government—as evident from his Twitter handle. Even then, he failed to prove his charge that Raje was involved in a corruption case amounting to Rs 23,000 crore.
With these shortcomings, it isn’t surprising that Congress lost Dholpur bypoll elections recently. This shameful defeat is bound to bring his leadership qualities under the scanner, which is why we believe that it’s high time Gehlot must quit politics to retain what’s left of his respect.
