Cong ‘ran away’ from debate, says CM

Jaipur: Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma Saturday attacked the Congress in the Assembly, alleging that it "lacked the courage to hear the truth" and "ran away from the debate" during his reply on the state govt's two-year performance amid sloganeering.Congress MLAs staged a walkout around 20 minutes after Sharma began speaking. "The public knows the truth about the past 5 years, so they did not participate in the debate," Sharma said, referring to the previous Congress govt.Sharma said the govt presented its two-year "report card" in the House for the first time, alongside its budget and future action plan, and offered the opposition a chance for a "meaningful debate", accusing the previous govt of doing "nothing" in its 5-year tenure.He claimed the previous Congress govt made "populist promises… solely for vote bank politics," and alleged "zero work" was done on 626 announcements made during its five-year term. "Congress govt's performance is zero. What will they argue about?" he said, adding that the "columns of their work were empty."Tearing into the Cong govt, Sharma claimed Congress made 4,148 announcements, but left 2,208 (53%) unfulfilled and went on to allege that in 2023-24, the Ashok Gehlot-led govt made 1,426 announcements of which 1,142 (80%) remained unfulfilled.Sharma also presented a laundry list of projects with "zero work," including promises to deliver 2,000 pilot drones, four MICE centres, five golf courses and a Vishwakarma SME Tower.In contrast, he said his govt made 2,719 budget announcements in two years, with 919 completed and work underway on 1,531, claiming "80%… completed or… being implemented."On jobs, Sharma said over one lakh govt posts were filled in two years, recruitment for about 1.55 lakh is underway, and a 2026 calendar for 1 lakh posts has been released. He also said late-term Congress schemes such as "Chiranjeevi Mamata Express" and "Shubh Lakshmi" saw negligible implementation.