Privilege motion: Ashok Gehlot accuses BJP of misleading people

JAIPUR: Hitting back at BJP for moving a privilege motion against him in the Rajasthan Assembly, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today alleged that the ruling party was "misleading" the people by "misinterpreting" his budget ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJP government wants to mislead the people into thinking that the earlier ( Congress) government had a poor financial management and this was leading to shutting down of projects," Gehlot said in a statement here last night.

"The truth is that the present government is deliberating withdrawing funds from institutions like local bodies so that public works like repair of roads get affected. All this is being done in view of the coming general elections," he added.

He said they (BJP) had spent more than 60 days by creating ambiguity and spreading rumours of closing down ambitious projects like Pachpadra refinery and Jaipur Metro Rail, and pension schemes.

"The state is in a sound financial position and they (BJP) could have done some good work for the people in the last three months. If there were some lacunae in our schemes they should have amended them for more effective implementation," he said.

On Saturday, a privilege motion on alleged misrepresentation of budget figure was moved against Gehlot by BJP legislator Rao Rajendra Singh. Speaker Kailash Meghwal has referred the matter to a House committee for proper examination before it is taken up for discussion.