Rajasthan will face assembly polls on December 7. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a strong challenge from a resurgent Congress in the state with the opposition party winning a number of by-polls in the past couple of years.

A number of opinion polls has also given an edge to the Congress but the BJP has insisted that it will be able to repulse the opposition's challenge.

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, who is also the election-in-charge for the BJP for Rajasthan's elections, said that the BJP will return to power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chattisgarh.

“There is no rule that every time there will be once Congress, once BJP. We have bucked all the anti-incumbency issues and we have maintained our states like Gujarat, Goa and we have won many other states. In 14, we had six states, now we have 19 and Congress had 16, they have lost it, now they have only 4. So Congress is losing, BJP is winning, that is what we see all over India. So we will maintain all our three states, MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan,” Javadekar told CNBC-TV18 on Wednesday.

With regards to farmer suicides, Javadekar said, “The suicide of farmers all over the country is the result of anti-farmer policies pursued by Congress for over 50 years because Congress never gave them comprehensive insurance, Congress never offered them real prices that was their demand for 40 years. Then they never gave them water and the due credit and many other things. We have given them fertiliser, Fasal Bima Yojana and more importantly, remunerative prices – 150 percent more than the cost of production. It was a landmark decision of Modi government and now farmers are happy because now they are assured of minimum support price which is 150 percent of their cost of production."

Talking about the growth under the BJP regime, he said, “Congress drove economy to such a level in a socialistic pattern that we never grew to the potential. On ease of doing business, we are 77th in the rank, that brings in investment, that brings in more industries. In Congress regime, there were only two mobile factories, now we have 124. So this is how employment grows in each sector. IT sector has shown a robust growth in employment. Not only IT but all the infrastructure development – if Congress was doing 7 kilometers per day of national highways and we are doing 28 kilometers per day that increases the employment,” said Javadekar.Polls for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11.

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First Published:Nov 21, 2018 2:43 PM IST