Prahlad Joshi to visit Jaipur today, take stock of BJP’s poll preparations

JAIPUR: Union Minister for Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi, is set to arrive in Jaipur on Friday to take stock of the BJP's preparations for the upcoming state Assembly elections.

The Union minister, who is also the BJP's election-in-charge for Rajasthan, with hold a key organisational meeting with key party office-bearers in the state, sources said.

Further, according to sources, in the meeting, to be chaired by the Union minister, the final contours of the BJP's campaign, titled 'Ab Nahi Sahega Rajasthan Bhrastachar' (Rajasthan will not tolerate corruption anymore), will be fleshed out.

The campaign, through which the principal Opposition party hopes to corner the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government on alleged corruption, will be launched by BJP national president JP Nadda on July 16.

The state, which has seldom seen an incumbent government returning to power, will go to polls later this year.

Speaking to media persons on Thursday, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, Rajendra Rathore, confirmed that the BJP will launch the 'Ab Nahi Sahega Rajasthan Brashtachar' campaign against the Gehlot government on July 16.

Rathore said, "Our state-in-charge Arun Singh will be Jaipur on July 14 (Friday) to prepare for the launch of the campaign."

He added that the BJP Yuva Morcha will hold a big demonstration in Ajmer on July 18 in protest against the alleged leak of the question papers for recent public recruitment examinations in the state.

"On July 18, the BJP Yuva Morcha will hold a big demonstration in Ajmer against the Gehlot government, especially the way the question papers for the recent recruitment exams were leaked.

The government has not taken any concrete steps to prevent such leaks in future. This demonstration will focus on all these issues. A large number of youth will participate in this protest," he said.

In April, a team from the Special Operations Group (SOG) arrested Rajasthan Public Service Commission member Babu Lal Katara, his nephew and a driver working for the commission in connection with the alleged paper leak of the senior teacher recruitment exam.

The competitive examination for General Knowledge for the recruitment of 2nd-grade teachers was cancelled in December, 2022 after an alleged leak of the question paper. The exam was pushed back to January 29 even as the Gehlot government came under fire from the Opposition.

Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who had been in a war of words with CM Gehlot at the time, said he would raise his voice and hit protest if any corruption or malpractice was established in the incident. "If there is looting and corruption in the state, we will have to raise our voice against it.

I raised my voice against corruption. Maybe some people did not like it, but I do not care. I will continue to fight against corruption," Pilot said at the time.

Chief Minister Gehlot, too, condemned the incident, terming the exam paper leaks as a 'disease' while assuring that strict action had been taken against the accused and proper laws were brought to check such practice in future.

"There are many states where such paper leak incidents take place. That said, I feel very sad (over the Rajasthan exam paper leaks). We have proposed a strict new law in Rajasthan and have sent the accused to jail.

This is a major disease and the Rajasthan government is taking strict action against paper leak mafia," Gehlot said.