Ashok Gehlot’s ‘offer’ to Modi a day after PM taunts over Rajasthan Budget gaffe

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot over his state budget gaffe, the latter on Monday offered to send him a copy of the same, saying it was a “model” for others to follow.

Modi on Sunday picked on a blunder made by Gehlot at the Rajasthan Budget presentation – when he mistakenly read an old budget speech before being interrupted – and taunted the Congress for lacking vision.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Gehlot said he rectified his mistake within “34 seconds”, and claimed that the BJP is rattled by his government’s performance in the state that goes to the polls this year-end. “I can send the copy of the Budget to the prime minister and he can send it to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They will realise that our budget is a model budget.”

“The budget we presented in Rajasthan can become a model budget for the country. We have taken care of all sections, all families. I can claim that such a budget is rare,” he added.

The chief minister also played down divisions within the Congress in Rajasthan, where he and his former deputy Sachin Pilot have been at loggerheads. Pilot had led a rebellion in 2020 for change of leadership in the state.

Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway Sunday – the 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section that will reduce the travel time between Jaipur and Delhi. Addressing a rally in Rajasthan’s Dausa afterwards, he poked fun at Gehlot and said, “It’s not hidden from anyone how the present Congress in government in Rajasthan is governing the state. What happened during the Budget session in the state assembly is being discussed everywhere today. I agree anyone can commit a mistake, but the Congress has no vision.”