In last leg of Ashok Gehlot’s fight for his son, paper leaks claims cast shadow

ASHOK Gehlot has not forgotten the 2019 loss of his son Vaibhav Gehlot from the Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat when he himself was the CM. The senior Congress leader has been determined to ensure there is no repeat as Vaibhav contests from Jalore this time.

The “revelations” of Gehlot’s former OSD Lokesh Sharma then, days before polling in Jalore on Friday, could not have had worse timing. And they did not take long trickling down to the constituency.

Narpat Singh, 61, a retired teacher sitting outside a tea shop in Jalore zila parishad, says that while Vaibhav may be putting up a tough fight still, the BJP is on a strong footing in Jalore. “Moreover, the Congress will lose whatever little support it has among youth because of revelations by Gehlot’s OSD.”

On Wednesday, Sharma claimed, among other things, that Gehlot had tried to protect the accused in the paper leaks during his tenure, including the then Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education Chairman Dharmpal Jaroli.

The BJP has made the paper leaks a big issue, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a mention of it in his speech in Agra on Thursday, raising Sharma’s claims. Late in the evening, in his first remarks on the “revelations”, Gehlot asked what proof did the PM have.

However, in Jalore, some have doubts. If unemployment is a big issue, Narpat says, it is because of paper leaks under the Gehlot government.

Ironically, education is one of the common points in political conversations in Jalore, especially since the BJP’s Lumbaram Choudhary, 59, finished his Class 10 only in 2016, while Vaibhav has two degrees from ILS Law College in Pune.

Sitting next to Narpat, Shrawan Nath, 38, who hails from the SC Kalbelia caste, says Vaibhav is well-educated and can put forward the