Rajasthan Assembly election 2018: BJP is building castles in the air if it expects to win 180 seats, says Congress

Kota: Former Rajasthan minister and Congress leader Shanti Kumar Dhariwal on Thursday said by setting a target of 180 plus seats for next assembly elections the BJP is just building castles in the air. The BJP has set itself an ambitious target of clinching at least 180 of the 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan in the state elections due next year. [caption id=“attachment_3438584” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. PTI[/caption] The mission was set early this month at a meeting of the BJP’s state—level working committee, where it also focused on retaining all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 general elections with a “bigger margin”. “The state unit president of the BJP, Ashok Parnami, and Chief Minister (Vasundhara) Raje are only making castle in the air to misguide the public”, said Dhariwal, who was the state home minister in the previous Congress government. “Why both the leaders have not set the mission for 200 seats? And for whom they have left the 20 seats?”, he asked, taking a jibe at the BJP. “Actually both the senior state BJP leaders are dreaming and I wonder why they have not dreamt of all 200 assembly seats,” Dhariwal told PTI. He said the people of the state were ready “to teach a lesson” to the BJP in the coming elections. Congress leader Bharat Singh said the BJP’s ambitious target showed its clear lack of understanding of the public conscience. “Their mission 180+ is just a propaganda to misguide the public and such propaganda shows the current government’s lack of understanding of public conscience,” said Singh, the urban development and housing (UDH) minister of previous Ashok Gehlot—led government.