Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday criticised the ruling Congress government in Rajasthan, alleging that the communal clashes took place in the state with planned strategies and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot failed to take any concrete action against the rioters due to ‘vote bank’ politics.

Addressing a press conference here in Jaipur, on the last day of the campaign for the Rajasthan Assembly elections, Amit Shah said that the state witnessed several incidents as an example of the appeasement politics by the Gehlot-led Congress government.

“Appeasement politics crossed all limits during Gehlot’s government. In the last 5 years, planned riots have taken place in Chhabra, Bhilwara, Karauli, Jodhpur, Chittorgarh, Nohar, Mewat, Malpura, and Jaipur. Due to vote bank politics, the Gehlot government did not take any concrete action against the rioters. Bulldozer was used on Ram Darbar in Salasar. In Alwar, a Shivalinga was broken with a drilling machine. A bulldozer rammed the cow shed in Kathumar; you can see many such cases of appeasement in Rajasthan in the last five years,” Amit Shah said.

The union minister further exuded confidence in his party- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning the assembly elections.

“In the last 6 months, I have been visiting Rajasthan. I have visited the entire Rajasthan and I want to say with confidence that the next government in Rajasthan will be formed by the BJP. There is a mood of change among the people in every corner of Rajasthan,” Shah said.

Rajasthan is set for assembly polls on November 25, with votes to be counted on December 3.

Of the 200 assembly seats, 199 will be contested on November 25, as elections in the Karanpur constituency were adjourned due to the passing of the Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh KoonarIn 2018, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP won 73.

Gehlot assumed the CM position with the support of BSP MLAs and Independents.

With Rajasthan set to witness assembly polls on Saturday, the star campaigners from BJP and Congress held rallies and launched attacks at each other.

BJP has been persistently accusing the Congress of appeasement over vote bank politics while Rahul Gandhi sharpened its attack on the BJP bringing in the Adani issue and terming the party’s top brass “pickpocketers”.

When BJP marked its campaigning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the lead and joined by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president JP Nadda, Congress brought in party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and party MP Rahul Gandhi to light up the campaigning battle.

However, Shah also mentioned the widely discussed Red Diary in the run-up to the polls and questioned Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

“People are questioning Ashok Gehlot about the ‘red diary’. Why are they afraid of it?” Shah said.

Notably, the BJP has been ramping up its charge that it has in its possession a “Red diary” that contains alleged incriminating material against the Ashok Gehlot-led government and his administration.

In the Assembly session in July, then Minister of State Rajendra Singh Gudha raised the issue of women’s safety in the state and called upon his party’s government to introspect rather than talk about crimes against women in Manipur.

However, within hours, he was sacked by the Gehlot government.

Days later, Gudha came out with a “Red diary”, and shared purported excerpts from it to claim irregularities in elections to the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) headed by Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot.

He also mentioned several alleged corruptions in the Rajasthan government.