Gehlot govt gets party’s support amid Pilot’s play

Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi on Tuesday slammed Congress leaders who have mounted an attack on the Gehlot government, saying it was surprising and disappointing that some responsible people were making allegations of corruption against the government.

Congress MLA from Didwana, Chetan Dudi, also hit out at those lashing out against the government. The two leaders came out in defence of the Ashok Gehlot government a day after Pilot and Sainik Kalyan Minister Rajendra Gudha levelled fresh corruption allegations. Without naming Gudha over remarks that the Rajasthan government was going beyond the “40 percent commission of the Karnataka government”, Joshi said, “Such leaders should have thought before accusing their own government that they were in a way levelling these allegations on themselves too”. Gudha made the allegations during Pilot’s rally in Jaipur on Monday.

In a statement on Monday night, Joshi said those who have made allegations know well that whenever the matter of corruption has come up, the chief minister has taken strong action by following the policy of zero tolerance, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s actions against the corrupt are indicative of this.

Dudi, who was earlier considered close to dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot but stood with the government during the political crisis in 2020, said the three demands raised by Pilot were impractical and completely incomprehensible.

On the issue of corruption by the former Vasundhara Raje government, Dudi said all those cases have been settled by the High Court and the Supreme Court, and the mining leases have already been cancelled.