Jaipur:

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said Rajasthan is going to give all 25 Lok Sabha seats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third time. Addressing a poll rally in Bhilwara, Mr Shah also targeted former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, saying that he was stuck in the election campaign of his son Vaibhav Gehlot, the Congress candidate from the Jalore seat.

Vaibhav Gehlot is going to lose the election by a huge margin, the Union minister claimed.

“The first phase of elections was yesterday (Friday). All 12 seats of Rajasthan that voted in the first phase are going to Narendra Modi. Rajasthan is going to make a hat-trick of giving all 25 seats to Narendra Modi for a third time,” Shah said.

He also hit out at Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, claiming that they go on vacations abroad every three months.

“Priyanka Gandhij i returned from Thailand after a vacation in the middle of the elections,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, will contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Jalore seat. This is Vaibhav Gehlot’s second attempt to get elected to the Lok Sabha. In 2019, he contested from the Jodhpur seat and lost to BJP’s Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. This time, Mr Gehlot will be up against BJP’s Lumbaram Chaudhary.

Rajasthan remains a tough challenge for Congress, the party did not win a single seat in the state in the 2014 and the 2019 general elections.

Here are some facts about Vaibhav Gehlot:

1) Vaibhav Gehlot was born on June 2, 1980, to Ashok Gehlot and Sunita Gehlot. He studied Law at the ILS Law College, University of Pune, in 2003.

2) Before entering politics, Vaibhav Gehlot was in the car rental business and consultancy. In 2005, he married Himanshi Gehlot, a businesswoman.

3) Apart from politics, Mr Gehlot takes a keen interest in cricket as well. He was elected president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) for the second consecutive term in 2022. In February 2024, months after BJP wrested power from Congress in the state, he resigned from his position as RCA boss alleging he was being deliberately targeted.

4) In 2023, Vaibhav Gehlot appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Jaipur for questioning in a foreign exchange violation case. The case is related to last year’s ED raids against Triton Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Vardha Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. and its directors and promoters Shiv Shankar Sharma and Rattan Kant Sharma. The central agency questioned Vaibhav Gehlot on his alleged links with Rattan Kant Sharma. Vaibhav Gehlot and his father Ashok Gehlot have denied any wrongdoing.

5) After Vaibhav Gehlot lost the Jodhpur seat by over 2.5 lakh votes in 2019 elections to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ashok Gehlot blamed Sachin Pilot for the loss and said he should take the responsibility for the drubbing. Mr Pilot  said the Congress leadership fielded Vaibhav Gehlot in the 2019 election on his insistence.

Jaipur:

Attacking the Central government on recent Enforcement Directorate raids in poll-bound Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the National Democratic Alliance government is “doing a crime” and the country “will never forgive them”.

“The NDA govt is doing a crime and the country will never forgive them…election is going on, ED keeps showing up at the houses of party leaders, keeping them (opposition leaders) busy throughout the day. BJP people are freely fighting the elections, whereas Congress leaders are being sent notices…,” Chief Minister Gehlot told reporters on Saturday in Delhi

“Even if they (BJP) lose elections in all 5 states, it won’t be surprising…ED has still not conveyed why they are raiding these political leaders and what they found so far…only BJP is talking, they have become ED’s spokesperson,” Mr Gehlot alleged.

ED on Thursday conducted raids at the residences of state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara in Jaipur and Sikar. Additionally, a coaching centre allegedly linked to Dotasara was also searched.

The ED has also summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son, Vaibhav Gehlot, for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case.

Mallikarjun Kharge told ANI, “They (BJP) want to spoil Gehlot’s election and demoralise and scare Congress leader. They do it always. We won’t be scared, we will fight strongly and will face this. Whatever they are doing is not right. We have been in politics for 50 years, but ED and IT raids during election time, have never happened. But today they are doing this to scare the CM. But one day they too will have to suffer.”

Congress leader Sachin Pilot expressed suspicion about the “timing,” “objective,” and “intent” behind the raids conducted by central government agencies in Rajasthan, suggesting that the BJP might be feeling vulnerable ahead of the Rajasthan assembly elections.

Mr Pilot criticized the BJP for specifically targeting Congress leaders without factual evidence, accusing them of attempting to use central agencies to influence the election outcome.

Polling for all 200 seats in the Rajasthan Assembly will be held on November 25 and the counting of votes will be held on December 3.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)