Media projections about CM candidate can be damaging: Ashok Gehlot

SIKAR (RAJASTHAN): Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot today rebuffed media predictions about state Congress chief Sachin Pilot being the party's chief- ministerial face for the Assembly polls, scheduled late this year.

"It is a trend at RPCC (state Congress) office that whenever a new party president is elected, media projects him as the chief minister of the state, which causes damage to the party," Gehlot told reporters here.

The Congress general secretary said he was similarly projected as the party's candidate by the media when he was elected as the RPCC president, but he did not fall in their "trap".


"Suddenly, the situation changed and I became the chief minister," the two-time chief minister said.

Asked about Congress president Rahul Gandhi's absence from the list of star campaigners for the state bypolls to be held on January 29, Gehlot clarified that the Congress president does not campaign for by-elections.

He exuded confidence of winning all three seats -- Ajmer, Alwar Lok Sabha, and Mandalgarh Assembly seat -- in the bypolls, adding that the party workers were upbeat and working hard in the poll-bound constituencies.