Ashok Gehlot said the Congress defeat in Rajasthan wasn't expected
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today accepted defeat of the Congress after leads showed the BJP had crossed the halfway mark.
The Congress had been hoping the people of Rajasthan would support the party over the attractive social welfare schemes that Mr Gehlot had launched in the past five years, and also announced in the Congress manifesto.
"Our schemes were so good. We thought we will form government based on our schemes and promises," Mr Gehlot told reporters today.
"Victories and losses keep happening in elections. I had hoped people would take revenge against the BJP, but maybe they did not understand what we were trying to communicate," the Chief Minister said.
Mr Gehlot said the Congress knew the BJP used "aggressive and inflammatory" language during their election campaign and spoke about Hindu-Muslim issues.
"The defeat in the three states is something to be looked into. The problem we had in Rajasthan was of not bringing new faces. But this concern was not in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. So saying we would have won with some new faces is incorrect," Mr Gehlot said, adding he works for the public and will continue to do so even without a formal post.
The BJP won 115 seats in the 199-seat Rajasthan assembly.