New Delhi:

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met a farmer from Jaislamer who appeared in a BJP poster, wrongly showing him as having auctioned his land.

“Why did you defame our farmer? The whole Rajasthan is asking BJP,” Mr Gehlot said in a video post on X.

हमारे किसान को क्यों किया बदनाम
भाजपा से पूछ रहा पूरा राजस्थान pic.twitter.com/uzO3PmpWLI

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) October 7, 2023

The video shows the initiatives the Congress government in Rajasthan has taken for farmers.

A controversy erupted on Friday over the BJP poster claiming that thousands of farmers in Rajasthan lost their land for defaulting on loans.

The son of the farmer in the BJP poster said neither has his family’s land been auctioned nor does it have a debt. Hitting out at the BJP over the issue, Mr Gehlot said the BJP has been exposed.

The BJP released the poster as part of its election campaign ‘Nahi Sahega Rajasthan’. The poster, which shows the photo of the farmer and claims that the land of more than 19,000 farmers in Rajasthan was auctioned after they failed to repay their bank loans, has been plastered in several parts of the state.

Farmer Madhuram Jaipal, 70, of Jaisalmer said the BJP has misused his picture; he has asked local BJP leaders to remove the photo or he would take the legal route.

“We request the BJP to remove my father’s photo from the poster. People are making adverse comments on social media. Neither was our land auctioned nor do we have a debt. We are sitting in our farm,” Mr Jaipal’s son Jugtaram said.

With inputs from PTI

Jodhpur (Rajasthan):

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foundation stone and dedicated multiple development projects worth about Rs 5,000 crore at Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

PM Modi also flagged off two new train services in Rajasthan. These included a new train – Runicha Express – connecting Jaisalmer to Delhi and a new heritage train connecting Marwar Junction – Khambli Ghat.

Further, two other rail projects were dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister. These included projects for doubling the 145 km long ‘Degana-Rai Ka Bagh’ rail line and the 58 km long ‘Degana-Kuchaman City’ rail line.

The slew of projects the Prime Minister inagurated today include a 350 bedded ‘Trauma Centre and Critical Care Hospital Block at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Jodhpur and seven Critical Care Blocks under Pradhan Mantri -Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) to be developed across Rajasthan.

The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone for the development of the state-of-the-art New Terminal Building at Jodhpur Airport, to be built at a total cost of Rs 480 crore.

Additionally, he dedicated the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur campus to the nation. The state-of-the-art campus has been built at a cost of more than Rs 1,135 crore.

For upgrading the infrastructure at the Central University of Rajasthan, the Prime Minister dedicated a ‘central instrumentation laboratory’, staff quarters, and a ‘yoga & sports sciences building’. 

He laid the foundation stone of the Central Library, 600 capacity Hostel and a dining facility for students at the Central University of Rajasthan.

The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of multiple road development projects. The road projects will be built at a cumulative cost of about Rs 1,475 crore. Jodhpur Ring Road will help ease traffic pressure and reduce vehicular pollution in the city.

Rajasthan is going to polls at the end of this year. The Bharatiya Janata Party aims to unseat the Congress government in the desert state.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has some advice for Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who has been questioning the Vice President’s frequent visit to the Congress-ruled state where the assembly election will be held soon.

At an election campaign in Rajasthan’s Neemrana, Mr Gehlot had objected to the Vice President’s visit to five districts since the election is near and the visit would “send all kinds of message, which is not good for democracy.”

“Politicians should come, but please do not send the Vice President; it is a constitutional post. We respect the President and the Vice President. Yesterday the Vice President came and visited five districts. It is election season. If you come now it will send all kinds of message which is not good for democracy,” Mr Gehlot told a gathering in Neemrana.

Vice President Dhankhar in an apparent response to Mr Gehlot said those in high positions should use responsible words.

“The higher the position a person holds, the more dignified his conduct should be. Making any comment to gain political advantage is not a good thing. I call upon everyone to be responsible when it comes to constitutional institutions,” the Vice President said.

The Vice President said it is a matter of “contemplation and concern that some people make indecent comments on constitutional institutions, wearing political glasses.”

“They should not do this; such behaviour is against our cultural heritage,” he said. “We must not look at constitutional functionaries with a political prism to score political points. That is not acceptable,” he added.

Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had also asked Mr Gehlot whether the Vice President needs to take the Chief Minister’s permission for visiting Rajasthan.

“For the Vice President, the Chief Minister said why is he coming now? So the Vice President will come after getting permission from him?” Mr Meghwal told reporters in Jaipur on Thursday.

Mr Gehlot is on an intensive campaign across Rajasthan, touching 18 districts and heading into 38 constituencies. It’s also a part of “Mission 2030” outreach where Mr Gehlot is talking about his vision for Rajasthan till 2030.

Mr Gehlot strategy has a soft Hindutva subtext as he will also visit important temples during this campaign. His schedule shows he will visit at least 10 prominent and local temples during the third leg of this nine-day campaign before the election code kicks in.

People holding placards and candles take part in a prayer service for peace in Manipur, in Dimapur, Nagaland on Sep. 3, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI

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