BJP to run state assembly polls on agenda of development: Javadekar

The BJP will contest the Rajasthan assembly polls on the agenda of development, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said Tuesday, challenging the Congress to focus its poll campaign on the state's progress.

The BJP's state poll in-charge, Javadekar said the elections would be fought under the leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and exuded confidence of retaining power in Rajasthan and breaking the trend of the BJP and the Congress forming governments after alternate elections.

"We are going to the public with slogans like 'BJP fir se' and 'fir ek bar, BJP sarkar' because the trend of the alternate parties' government is going to break this time. The BJP will have a repeat government, Javadekar said at a news conference here.

Targeting the grand old party, Javadekar said the Congress is the party of one family while "the BJP is a party which itself is a family".

They have no leadership, neither in the state nor in the Centre. They could not declare their chief ministerial candidate in the state. Sachin Pilot seems to be Rahul Gandhi's choice, but Gandhi has no courage to declare him as the CM candidate officially," he said.

"They are talking of 'kaun banega crorepati' but this is the time for the people to ask what is their plan to serve the people," he added.

We are contesting elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who made the state touch new heights of development. Our national president has already clarified it," he said.

He said the Congress was a mainstream political party but the present Congress is not the party which was led by Mahatma Gandhi.

"Rahul Gandhi's Congress is becoming irrelevant," he said, adding that the party leaders are questioning things like EVMs which were initiated during their own rule.

The HRD minister said in the last four years, after Narendra Modi became prime minister, the Congress lost many states, which were won by the BJP and that happened because the vote bank politics was getting weakened.

He said the tally of Congress-ruled states reduced from 16 to 4 and the BJP-ruled ones increased from 6 to 19 in four years.

The minster said it was a change in the politics in the country.

There will be no more politics of one family. Now the poor is also ambitious and the prime minister considers the poor one amongst us, he said.

On the issue of ticket distribution criteria, Javadekar said the party workers with high prospects of victory will get tickets.