Jaipur, Nov 14 — After his ‘Intezar-shastra’ series, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is launching a new video series, 'Budget Files’, to question the BJP government led by Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma over the implementation of its budget announcements.
Starting Saturday, Ashok Gehlot will release an episode every week on his official social media platforms, presenting a reality check on the promises made by the state government and their actual implementation on the ground.
In a post announcing the initiative, Gehlot pointed out that the BJP government has presented four budget documents so far: the Vote-on-Account 2024, Revised Budget 2024-25, Budget 2025-26 and Budget 2026-27.
He said these budgets included several announcements concerning public welfare and essential sectors such as roads, sports, drinking water, healthcare, urban development and employee welfare.
However, he alleged that many announcements remained unfulfilled and that several projects existed only on paper.
“Unfulfilled announcements. Work exists only on paper. No sign of the budget being implemented. The public is left disappointed,” Gehlot wrote, announcing the upcoming series as an attempt to hold the government accountable.
Each episode of ‘Budget Files’ will focus on a major announcement made by the state government. Gehlot intends to examine whether the promises made in budget documents have translated into tangible work on the ground.
Explaining the rationale behind the campaign, the former Chief Minister said, “A budget is not just a collection of figures; it is a promise made to the people of the state.”
The new series follows Gehlot's earlier ‘Intezar-shastra’ campaign, through which he had questioned the Bhajanlal Sharma government's functioning and highlighted delays in fulfilling its commitments.
As all eyes are now be the first episode of ‘Budget Files’, particularly the announcement Gehlot chooses to examine and the response from the ruling BJP, Education Minister Madan Dilawar hitting out at former CM said the BJP government believes in working among the people, with its performance serving as its true identity.
“We are not the kind of people who stage walkouts or flee the Legislative Assembly out of fear,” he asserted.
He said Ashok Gehlot and other Congress leaders had failed to offer a substantive response when challenged to compare the performance of the Bhajanlal Sharma government during its tenure of less than three years with that of the previous Congress government over its full five-year term. Congress had failed to account for its own five-year record in comparison with the achievements of the present government.
The BJP government had undertaken substantially more development work in less than three years than the previous Congress government had completed during its entire five-year tenure, he said.
Minister of State for Home Jawahar Singh Bedham said, “Our work speaks for itself.” He asserted that under Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma's leadership, the BJP government had established good governance in Rajasthan, free from corruption, examination paper leaks and crime.
Taking dig at former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other Congress leaders, Bedham accused them of spreading misinformation and resorting to political tactics to create an atmosphere of confusion.
He said the Congress' attempts to mislead the public through false claims and misleading statistics would not succeed, adding that the people had repeatedly given the party a befitting reply and would continue to do so.
Bedham urged Gehlot to stop attempting to confuse the public with misleading figures and instead present an account of the Congress government's own five-year tenure. He said the BJP government would seek the people's mandate on the basis of its performance and achievements while continuing to accelerate Rajasthan's development.