'Modi guarantee' deflated as petrol-diesel price reduction promise not implemented, says Gehlot

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has criticised the BJP-led state government for failing to fulfil the promises made by the saffron party before the recently concluded Assembly polls and alleged that there is no vision seen for the state in the state budget but there were only allegations against the previous Congress government.

"With today's budget, the BJP government in Rajasthan has deflated Modi's guarantee because in the recent Assembly elections, Modiji had given a guarantee to make the prices of petrol and diesel in Rajasthan at par with the neighbouring states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, but today, it was not implemented. In fact, it has not even been mentioned. This shows that Modi's guarantees are completely hollow. By the way, Modiji has stolen the word 'guarantee' from the Congress campaign," Gehlot said on Thursday.

"In the Vote on Account presented by the Finance Minister of Rajasthan, instead of the vision for the state, only allegations against the previous government are visible."

"All the financial indicators of the Rajasthan government have been better than the Union government. The state GDP of Rajasthan was around Rs 9 lakh crore in 2018, which increased to around Rs 15 lakh crore in 2023, and Rajasthan reached the top position in North India and second spot in the country in terms of economic growth rate," the former Chief Minister added.

"Displaying their "anti-farmer" mindset, the BJP government has abolished the separate agriculture Budget started by our (Congress) government whereas the Agriculture Minister of the present BJP government had welcomed this initiative of ours after assuming office," Gehlot said.

He also spoke on the metro expansion announcement by the current BJP government and accused them of scrapping it.

"Announcing the detailed project report of Sitapura to Ambabari Metro in the state Budget shows that our government's vision was right even 10 years ago. If the previous BJP government had not stopped its work, the Metro work would have been ready at a lower cost and the situation of heavy traffic jam in Jaipur today would not have arisen," he added.