Jaipur: Former Olympian and sitting member of parliament from Jaipur Rural, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, is confident about his chances of winning another term.

Rathore in an interview expressed his views on his political rival and former Olympian Krishna Poonia.

On losing seats to Congress during assembly elections from his constituency, he said, “State elections are fought on localised issues. The voter is now clear between an Assembly election and a national one and his/her response is according to that. Now, when we are going in for national elections, any opposition party basing its confidence on the 2018 elections is fooling itself.”

Addressing poll issues that will impact this election, the union minister explained that it was unfortunate that under the Congress governance, even basic amenities were not provided to the people. Therefore, that will remain the chief issue. Rathore said, “In 2014, the point was explaining that there is a possibility of better governance. In 2019, the continuation of the very high quality of governance is the issue, along with delivery of amenities. We are getting a very positive response.”

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The Congress has fielded former Olympian and Commonwealth gold medallist Krishna Poonia against Rathore, where the clash is anticipated to be a close one.

“It’s a battle between a corrupt and a transparent government. Our fight is against the mentality of the Congress, which is appeasement, contracts going to their cronies, weakening of the armed forces and nation, and the lack of delivery of services, accountability,” Rathore said.

On being attacked for not improving sports facilities in the constituency, Rathore said that he has given a new image to the sports setup in the region.

He said, “Before 2014, there was no platform for sports events in Jaipur Rural. Jaipur Mahakhel was started by me and for three years we have had tournaments from villages up to the Lok Sabha constituency level. We have fantastic awards like motorbikes and laptops… All these events are the results of efforts by teachers, ex-servicemen and volunteers. I have built indoor stadiums, mini-stadiums, fitness centres, open gyms… If you show me one MP, leaving aside the Prime Minister, who has invested half of this in sports, I will resign.”