Jaipur, February 20: Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot claimed on Monday that the frequent visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to the state in the election year are only aimed at garnering votes and once the purpose is served, they would disappear.

Addressing a public programme in Sriganganagar district, Pilot said Modi chose Dausa to inaugurate the Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot part of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway only because he wants to visit places where the Congress is strong ahead of the Assembly polls in Rajasthan that are due by the year-end. Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023: CM Ashok Gehlot Chairs First Session of Chintan Shivir in Jaipur Today.

The prime minister inaugurated the expressway and held a public meeting in Dausa on February 12. Pilot represented the Dausa Lok Sabha seat in Parliament from 2004 to 2009. Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023: Ministers Failing to Perform and Found Missing From Party's Programme Will Be Denied Ticket, Says Congress' In-Charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

Pilot also hit out at the BJP-led Centre over Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on premises linked to Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh, where the party is going to hold a three-day plenary session starting February 24.

"The entire country is watching this," he said. Hitting out at Modi and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Owaisi, Pilot said, "This February is special. The prime minister is going to Dausa.... Owaisi is going to Tonk.

Because this is the election year. Where were both these leaders for the last four years? As the polls are approaching, they are coming to give speeches, talk about religion. They were not there before the election and the day the polls are over in Rajasthan, they will disappear."

"We, the people who are sitting here, are your companions in happiness and sorrow. They are the people who brought laws against farmers, who came to power by taking votes in the name of religion. They are in power but they could not control inflation, unemployment," the MLA from Tonk added.

He said "opportunist" people are ruling at the Centre after taking votes on emotions but they have failed the country on all fronts. "They will once again do Hindu-Muslim, mandir-masjid, Bharat-Pakistan during elections, but they have nothing to do with fertilisers, seeds, electricity, employment, health. They come before elections to give speeches," he said.

Targeting the prime minister over the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), Pilot said Modi had promised to accord the status of a national project to it during his election rallies in the state in 2018.

Referring to the prime minister's speech in Dausa at the inauguration of the expressway, he said, "He did not recall his promise made five years ago. The road is going from Delhi to Mumbai but he only got Dausa for the inauguration.... He knows that he has to visit places which are our (Congress) bastions."

The Congress leader unveiled a statue of BR Ambedkar at the programme and said any kind of oppression must be opposed with full force. "We cannot accept injustice against the sons and daughters of Dalits. We have to give a voice to them, it is the responsibility of all of us. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing and that has to be filled," he said.