Responding to the questions raised by the Congress over development in the State, the BJP on Tuesday released a report-card of its 22-year rule in Gujarat, and claimed significant rise in all key indicators.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi has been giving out false data relating to development in Gujarat.

“Rahul Gandhi says Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP do not talk about development. Whatever he has been sharing to the people are false data. Under BJP rule between 1995 and 2016-17, Gujarat reported significant growth in all crucial indicators,” Prasad told the media on the final day of electioneering in the State.

Providing details, the Union Law and IT Minister said Gujarat’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) had risen from ₹71,886 crore in 1995-96 to ₹10.33 lakh crore in 2015-16. The per capita income had increased from ₹13,665 per annum to ₹1.41 lakh in 2015-16.

Hitting out at Rahul, who has blamed the State government for poor farming infrastructure, Prasad stated that gross cultivable area in Gujarat had increased to 126.97 lakh hectares (as per 2014-15 data), and gross irrigated land had more than doubled from 35 lakh hectares to 71.05 lakh hectares.

“The size of the State’s budget has increased from ₹10,873 crore to ₹1.71 lakh crore for 2017-18, with revenues increasing from ₹8,544 crore to ₹1.12 lakh crore. Rahul Gandhi questions about the small businesses; I want to tell him that number of MSMEs in the State increased from 1.78 lakh in 1995-96 to 3.76 lakh in 2016-17,” said Prasad.

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