Rajasthan govt announces 19 new districts ahead of polls this year, opposition BJP calls it 'political move'

The ruling Congress government's move in an election year, however, received flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The saffron party alleged that the real intention behind the decision by the Ashok Gehlot government is to meet "personal political ends".

"Rajasthan is the biggest state in the country in terms of geographical area. In some cases, the distance to the district headquarters is more than 100 km," Gehlot said in the Rajasthan assembly on Friday.

People are unable to reach district headquarters easily and the administration, too, is unable to reach each and every family," he said.

Rajasthan currently has 33 districts and the three new divisional headquarters are Pali, Sikar and Banswara.

"If the districts are smaller, then it helps in maintaining effective law and order and better administration can be provided," Gehlot told the assembly.

Former Chief Minister and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje said Gehlot decided to carve out the new districts "to fulfil political ends".

"The way in which new districts have been announced has put the (state) budget and economic structure at stake. Many important issues have been overlooked in announcing the new districts," Raje said, adding the move will cause more administrative challenges rather than making it easier.

The ruling Congress and the BJP have already started warming up campaigns ahead of the election scheduled for later this year.