Ashok Gehlot meets farmer Madhuram Jaipal whose photo appeared in a BJP poster
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.
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