Amit Shah's "Magician" Swipe At Ashok Gehlot At Rajasthan Poll Rally

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said law and order, electricity in villages and welfare schemes started by the previous government "vanished" after Ashok Gehlot came to power in Rajasthan and added "only a magician can do this", alluding to the chief minister's past.

Addressing a campaign rally in Rajasthan's Kuchaman ahead of the November 25 assembly polls, the senior BJP leader said the Congress government in the state is the "most corrupt" and has crossed "all limits of appeasement", and appealed to people to uproot it.

He cited the killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, various communal incidents, illegal mining and recruitment exam paper leaks to target the state government.

Referring to Chief Minister Gehlot's previous association with magic, Mr Shah said he has made law and order, electricity in rural areas and schemes launched by the previous BJP government led by Vasundhara Raje vanish.

"Only a magician can do this," he said. Mr Gehlot was born into a family of professional magicians in Jodhpur and briefly assisted his father on his tours.

Mr Gehlot gets angry on seeing the colour red, Mr Shah said, in the context of a "red diary" that, according to the allegation of terminated minister Rajendra Gudha, contains details of illegal financial transactions of the chief minister.

He accused the Congress of stalling the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya for 70 years.

"Lord Shri Ram was in a state of humiliation for more than 550 years. The Congress was stalling the construction of Ram temple for 70 years, but (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi performed its bhoomi pujan," he said.

Prime Minister Modi is also going to attend the temple's consecration on January 22, he said and appealed to people to book tickets for their travel to Ayodhya on that day.

The Congress leaders who used to question the BJP have gone silent now, he said.

Mr Shah also alleged that the Congress can neither keep the country safe nor bring glory, whereas Prime Minister Modi has done the work of taking the national flag to the moon.

India launched a spacecraft on the lunar surface earlier this year, becoming the fourth country to achieve the feat.

Referring to various communal incidents and the murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, the BJP leader said the Gehlot government worked to ban Ram Navmi and Mahaveeer Jayanti processions but gave the PFI permission to take out rally in Kota.

It was the Modi government which banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) and put its members behind bars, he said.

Lashing out at the state government over illegal mining, he said, "Illegal mining increased to such a level that a sant committed suicide by burning himself, yet Gehlot did not open his eyes."

He gave a guarantee to people of the state that tap water will be provided to all households in two-and-a-half years after the BJP forms the state government.

Mr Shah also said that Rs 2 lakh crore was given to Rajasthan by the erstwhile UPA government from 2004 to 2014, whereas the Modi government gave Rs 8.71 lakh crore from 2014 to 2023 and executed projects worth Rs 6 lakh crore in nine years.

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