Overconfident state leadership to blame for Dholpur debacle: Gehlot

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday blamed “an overconfident state leadership” for the party’s loss in the Dholpur bypoll and sought a post-mortem of the result to prevent further losses in the 2018 assembly elections.

Gehlot, en route to Jodhpur, was talking to reporters during his brief stopover at the circuit house in Ajmer on Sunday.

BJP candidate Shobha Rani Kushwaha defeated Banwari Lal Sharma of Congress by a record margin in the Dholpur bypoll. The defeat of Sharma, a veteran who had won five elections from Dholpur, came as a setback to the opposition party in Rajasthan.

Gehlot told party workers to get it out of the mindset that the state people choose between Congress and BJP alternately. “Let the party workers clear we will succeed in assembly elections only if we work hard as a single unit,” he said.