Five reasons why Congress was ousted from power in Rajasthan

Jaipur: Outgoing Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot may well say that "lies and rumours" by the BJP led to the defeat of his party in the assembly elections, but the facts seem to be otherwise.Five main reasons are being attributed to the Congress debacle in Rajasthan: A--Pricerise led to widespread anger among voters cutting across castes, with Narendra Modi fuelling people's fury. B- Anti-Meena caste sentiment: There was an undercurrent among other castes that if Kirori Lal Meena's NPP won handsomely, it would hold the government to ransom.While the Meena voters voted en bloc for NPP in Dausa, Karoli, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur and Alwar, the party itself won five seats. Kirori Lal Meena himself lost from Sawai Madhopur. The other castes decided to side with the BJP. C- Upper castes mobilized in favour of BJP.Congress had even gone for quotas in promotion, and this was opposed by Samta Andolan and Mission 72. Gehlot government tried to crush this movement. The message went across the upper castes that Gehlot was anti-upper castes.D- Anti-minorities sentiment: After the Gopalgarh incident and Survaal riots, Congress high command pulled up Gehlot for failing to protect minorities, just before the UP assembly polls. In this year's budget, Gehlot laid out the goodies for the minorities, and the majority community decided to react. E- In the last six months in office, Gehlot went on a spree distributing laptops, tablets, sarees, blankets, pensions, cycles and free medicines. BJP sent out the message among the voters that the Congress was trying to buy their votes, and this step boomeranged.