Jaipur: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has said he will make sure that party workers have their say and no "parachute candidate" gets nominated in the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan.
"I can guarantee you this time that not a single parachute candidate will be able to get the ticket. If any such candidate comes, I will cut the rope," Gandhi said here on Saturday at the launch of the party's election campaign in the state. "Congress party workers will be heard and will get the tickets," he said.
He said the party is in a good position to form the government in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, three states where Assembly elections will be held this year.
"Party men are working on the ground and their voice will be heard by the Congress government formed after the elections," Gandhi told party workers at the Ramlila Ground rally.
Gandhi reached the venue after a 13-km ride in a special bus from Jaipur airport, in a show of strength by the Congress. The party workers waited along the route to welcome him, waiving party flags.
The Congress chief waived at them, and at times got off the bus to meet them. There were drummers and folk artistes at some places. Vehicles, with posters carrying his pictures, followed. Near the airport, the welcome included decorated camels, elephants and bullock carts.
Gandhi was accompanied by All India Congress Committee general secretaries Ashok Gehlot and Avinash Pande, state unit chief Sachin Pilot and other leaders. His cavalcade halted when he saw a person on a wheelchair waiting near the Laxmi Mandir crossing to welcome him.
At the rally, Sachin Pilot accused Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of using the taxpayers' money to fund her ongoing Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra'.
Gehlot said Raje had objected to another BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria's proposed yatra when the party was in the opposition. He also referred to the recent lynching of a Muslim man in Alwar after vigilantes suspected that he was smuggling cows.
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