Rajasthan polls: Not in any race for CM, says BJP's Gajendra Shekhawat

Jaipur: Amid speculation that he too may be fielded by the BJP in the Rajasthan Assembly polls, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said he is not in the race for the chief minister’s post.

As elsewhere, the Bharatiya Janata Party has not projected any leader as its CM candidate in the Congress-run state. But former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and Shekhawat are being seen as possible contenders if the party wins.

In its first list of 41 candidates, the BJP has nominated seven MPs for the assembly elections on November 25.

There is a buzz that the Jodhpur MP may also be asked to fight the state elections, possibly from Jodhpur’s Sardarpura assembly constituency -– held now by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Shekhawat said there has been no discussion on this but any decision by the party's top leadership will be followed.

In an interview to PTI, he denied that he aspired for the top post in the state. “I am not in any kind of race. I only do the work my leadership and the organisation gives me to do. I have no aspiration or desire other than this,” he said.

The Union Jal Shakti minister said the BJP legislature party will take the decision on the chief minister’s post, and that will then be validated by the party’s parliamentary board.

He predicted that the BJP will cross its record 2013 tally of 163 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan House this time.

Shekhawat dismissed allegations by some local leaders that they were denied the party nomination this time because they are in the Raje camp. “Tickets have been announced for 41 seats -- about 20 per cent seats. It is too early to draw conclusions from that,” he said.

He said Raje is a senior leader and is respected by people at all levels in the party.

“There is no faction or group in the party and everyone is a 'karyakarta' (worker). The party decides who are the most suitable and gives them the responsibility of contesting the elections,” Shekhawat said, reacting to protests by some disgruntled ticket seekers.

On the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society “scam”, he accused Gehlot of misusing the state police and targeting him because of his son Vaibhav Gehlot’s defeat in Jodhpur in the last Lok Sabha elections.

On the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), Shekhawat said, “Gehlot was never serious about this project. He only wanted to do politics.” The project was envisaged by Raje government, and the Gehlot government is demanding a “national project” status for it. The Congress has indicated that it will be a major poll plank.

The minister said the BJP government will cover the ERCP under the river interlinking project.

He claimed the Gehlot government failed on every front.

The promises made to farmers were not fulfilled, paper leaks shattered the dreams of lakhs of youths, crime went up several-fold, atrocities against women and the Dalits increased and corruption touched new heights, the BJP leader alleged.

He said the BJP's priority will be to make Rajasthan the country’s growth engine.