Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot rejects resignation of minister Lalchand Kataria after he offered to quit following poor results of Congress

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has rejected the resignation of Agriculture Minister Lalchand Kataria, who had offered to quit following the poor results of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Mr. Kataria met the chief minister at the latter's residence on Friday evening and reiterated his desire to resign, but Mr Gehlot rejected it, sources said.

"The CM rejected the resignation and asked him to continue and play role in delivering good governance," a CMO source said.

On Sunday last, the minister had announced his desire to resign and a purported resignation letter was circulated on social media.

However, the chief minister''s office and the Raj Bhavan had refused having received any such letter. 

Read: Rumblings Of Discontent Surface In Congress's Rajasthan Government After Rahul Gandhi Rebukes CM Ashok Gehlot For Campaigning For His Son

Earlier, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asserted that Congress can never die and the country needs it. 

The senior Congress leader said the BJP played on emotions and sentiments of the people and never fought on real issues.

During the election campaign, the people never got to know the BJP's vision for the country and stand on issues such as unemployment, farm distress and economy, he said.

The Rajasthan chief minister said the people's mandate in a democracy is important and his party accepts it with humility, but expressed his anguish at the manner in which the BJP rode to victory banking on religion, caste and nationalism instead of relying on issues of the people.

"People's mandate in a democracy is topmost and the Congress has protected it all these 70 years since Independence and accepted it with humility. I am pained that in this election the campaign was not issue-based and there was nothing for the farmers, poor, villages, backwards, Dalits and there was no discussion on providing jobs to youths," he told PTI.

"The BJP did politics only on religion, caste, nationalism and the bravery of soldiers. Rahul Gandhi did a lot to try and make the campaign issue-based. But, no vision for future was given and no achievements were listed and the BJP won over people by speaking lies. People got swayed and voted for them," he said.

Gehlot, in whose state the Congress got wiped out and his son lost in Jodhpur, recalled the time when former prime minister Indira Gandhi lost in 1977 but steered the party back to victory three years later.