Sachin Pilot has given up on winning the battle for leadership in Rajasthan

Only a few months are left for the assembly elections in Rajasthan. In such a situation, all the political parties have started their preparations to contest the elections. The ongoing issue of leadership change in the Congress has also come to an end. It has been decided that the next assembly elections will be fought under the leadership of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. His rival Sachin Pilot has also now accepted that the time has passed for a change of leadership in the state. That is why the demand for change in his leadership has also stopped. Now Sachin Pilot has started saying that the next assembly elections can be won only with the unity of all the people of the party.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot knows that no matter how many development works the government gets done, the people change the government after every five years. The people of Rajasthan believe that with the change of government, more rapid development works take place in the state. Ashok Gehlot has defeated Sachin Pilot in his tenure of five years. But now the assembly elections are standing before him as the biggest challenge. Where they will have to defeat all the opposition parties and form the government again. Gehlot knows that due to the mutual factionalism going on in the Congress, a good message is not going towards the party in the general public. To fulfill this shortcoming, Ashok Gehlot is going to contest elections on the issue of development in the state. This time the glimpse of Gehlot’s thinking has been seen in the general budget of Rajasthan.

Gehlot has made the last budget of his tenure completely a development-oriented budget for the common man. In the budget, full care has been taken of the common man of the state. It has been announced to start many schemes of his interest, of which Gehlot will take full political advantage. From the point of view of social security, Gehlot has given a big financial support to the old citizens of the state, widowed women, disabled and orphan children by announcing an increase in the monthly pension amount. The benefit of which they will get in the elections is believed to be certain. As soon as he became the Chief Minister, Gehlot had also increased the amount of pension received by all the above people.

As part of his development agenda, Chief Minister Gehlot has made the construction of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project a major political issue. With the completion of this canal project, the people of 13 districts of eastern Rajasthan will not only get drinking water, but also irrigation facilities will be available on two lakh 80 thousand hectares of land. This project remains a question of life and death for the people of East Rajasthan. In a public meeting during the last assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also talked about declaring this project as a central project and getting it completed. But the central government has not taken up this project till date. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is raising this issue very loudly.

These 13 districts, including Jhalawar, Bandra, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Jaipur, Karauli, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dausa and Dhaulpur in eastern Rajasthan, have more than a third of Rajasthan’s population. With the completion of this canal project, the economic condition of the people of this area will be strengthened, as well as drinking water will be available to them for a long time to come. There are 83 assembly seats in these 13 districts. Out of which Congress currently has 49 seats and BJP has 25 seats. Politically also, Congress is in a strong position in these 13 districts. Chief Minister Gehlot is engaged in further strengthening his party’s hold in this area on the issue of this canal project.

That is why Chief Minister Gehlot has recently given financial approval of Rs 14 thousand 200 crore to speed up this project. The Gehlot government had issued approval of Rs 9 thousand 600 crore for this project in its last year’s budget as well. In this way, the state government has so far issued approval of Rs 23 thousand 800 crore on this project. With this project, Navnera-Galwa-Bisalpur-Isarda link project, construction of Navnera Barrage and Isarda Dam, construction of Ramgarh and Mahalpur Barrage, setting up of pumping and power stations in Navnera Barrage, Mej Anicut and Galwa Dam and storage of flood water. Including various tasks can be completed.

Along with this, work will also be done to increase the height of Bisalpur dam by half a meter and to develop 202.42 kilometer long water transport system. Apart from this, keeping in view the additional drinking water needs of Jaipur, Ajmer, Tonk districts and the additional demand of 16.82 TMC drinking water for the remaining rural areas of Jaipur district, water management works can be done by the year 2040. In order to provide relief to the poor people of the state from inflation, Gehlot has announced an inflation relief package of Rs 19,000 crore in this budget. In this, it has been announced to give domestic gas cylinders for Rs 500 to 76 lakh families of the state included in the Ujjwala Yojana and to start free Chief Minister Annapurna Food Packet Yojana every month to one crore people associated with the food security scheme in the state. Under which 1 kg pulses, 1 kg sugar, 1 kg salt, 1 liter edible oil and spices will be made available in every packet. On which the state government will spend three thousand crores. This plan of Gehlot can prove to be helpful for returning to power in 2023.

Along with this, 100 units per month to all domestic electricity consumers and 2000 units per month to agricultural consumers and free treatment facility up to Rs 25 lakh is included in the Chief Minister Chiranjeevi Yojana. Now no examination fee will be charged from the youth in the recruitment examinations conducted by the government in the state. It has given a huge relief to the unemployed candidates. By announcing one lakh new recruitments for the unemployed youths in the coming year, the Chief Minister has done the work of wooing the youth as well.

The announcement of implementation of the old pension scheme to the government employees is being considered as a master stroke of the Chief Minister. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is the first Chief Minister of the country to restore the old pension scheme. After his announcement, many state governments have announced to implement this scheme. Now the government employees of every state are demanding to implement the old pension scheme. On the issue of old pension scheme, Gehlot has put BJP in political trouble. Recently, the BJP-ruled Karnataka government has also constituted a committee of senior officers to study the old pension scheme. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is making every move very carefully. They know that on one hand they have to compete with other opposition parties including BJP. At the same time, by controlling the internal factionalism prevailing in the party, he will have to give majority to the Congress in the elections. Only then his dream of becoming the Chief Minister for the fourth time will be fulfilled.

Ramesh Sarraf Dhamora

(The author is a freelance journalist accredited by the Government of Rajasthan. His articles continue to be published in many newspapers of the country.)