Raje confident of victory, Parnami eyes 180 seats

Shesaid

Exuding confidence after party’s victories in the Left citadels, Tripura and Nagaland, the BJP Saturday said it will now win 180 of the total 200 seats in Rajasthan that goes to polls later this year.

The ruling party that lost the bypolls to two Lok Sabha and one assembly seats held in January, said the wins in the two Northeast states will “infuse enthusiasm into the BJP workers.”

“BJP’s victory in Tripura and Nagaland prove that people want ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. People have expressed their faith in BJP. It is also an endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public welfare schems,” said Ashok Parnami, state BJP president.

“Congress has always played politics of appeasement and divided the people based on their castes due to which it is fading away in the entire country,” Parnami said, adding BJP “will win 180 seats in Rajasthan assembly election.”

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje credited “efficient leadership” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “handling of orga- nization by party president Amit Shah” for the party’s victory in Northeast.

“The support to BJP in northeastern states proves that there is no alternative to BJP in the country. In Rajasthan, too BJP will once again form the government with peoples’ love and blessings,” Raje said.

The Congress, however, downplayed the results and reminded the BJP of the Gujarat assembly election result.

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said, “There is no Modi wave and countdown has begun for BJP from Gujarat. The wounds that the BJP got in Gujarat polls will not heal in assembly or parliamentary elections in Rajasthan.”

On BJP’s victories in Tripura and Nagaland, Gehlot said, BJP should not remain in any illusion as “in Northeast, the governments have been formed by the party that had been ruling at Centre”. “In Meghalaya, Congress will form the government,” he added.

A local court in Udaipur has sentenced two persons to three years in jail for sodomising a teacher, police said Saturday.

The court of Mavli judicial megistrate Inderjeet Meena, which convicted Rajendra Kudi, a patwari and Kailash Khatik, a ration dealer under various sections of the IPC, including Section 377 (unnatural offences) on February 28, also imposed a penalty of ₹5,000 on each of them, said Gopal Sharma, the SHO, Fatehnagar police station.

The victim had filed a complaint at Fatehnagar police station in February 2016 alleging that Kudi and Khatik had beaten up and sodomised him at a hotel room, said Sharma. The victim stated that Kudi stayed in the same building where he stayed on rent. Pretending that he was taking him to the market for shopping, Kudi allegedly took the teacher to a hotel, where Khatik was already waiting for them. The duo beat up and sodomised him at the hotel room, stated the victim in his complaint. HTC

JAIPUR: VASUNDHARA RAJE, chief minister UDAIPUR: