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Bickering among BJP allies has ruined economy: Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today charged that the internal bickering among various coalition partners of the Vajpayee government at the Centre has created a serious economic crisis in the country and brought progress and development to a standstill.

Addressing several election meetings in the Sardarpura assembly constituency from where he is contesting a by-election, Gehlot said the BJP's alliance partners have been shamelessly trying to wrest the best ministries for themselves. The Vajpayee government for the last one year has been involved in an inner power struggle. ''No task worth the name has been initiated or completed to put in motion the wheels of progress, heaping untold hardships for the common man,'' he said.

Addressing another meeting at Mahamandir crossing, Gehlot alleged that the BJP government in Rajasthan during the last five years and the various coalition governments at the Centre for the last two-and-a-half years have put the country back economically as well as industrially. Aimless central governments invested their energies in retaining power which had a retrograde effect on the fast-moving economy, he said.

The chief minister reiterated the Congress government's commitment to the people of Rajasthan and declared that despite the hurdles, the Congress government in the state was bound to remove hardships and lead it to better days. In fact the people have already started experiencing benefits in the last two-and-a-half months since the Congress formed the government in Rajasthan, he claimed.

Gehlot charged that the previous Bhairon Singh Shekhawat government in the state had brought the state to the brink of bankruptcy, and promised the election gatherings that the Congress government in the state will not indulge in any unwanted project. ''My government is duty bound to protect the honour of the people of the state,'' he said.

UNI

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