All’s not well with saffron party in Rajasthan

Jaipur: If sources in the saffron party are to be believed, then all is not well with the BJP in Rajasthan.

The divisions in the party came to the fore when former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje remained absent from the Rajasthan BJP working committee meeting which was held at Ladnun in Nagaur district on Saturday.

While all big leaders, including BJP in-charge, former state presidents, leader of opposition, deputy leader of opposition and central ministers from the state, were present to put forth their points, Raje stayed away from the meeting.

She had been attending all the working committees before, even when things were reportedly not well between her and former state president Satish Poonia.

The senior leaders changed the state leadership, and since then the party has been trying to give a message of being united. While it was evident that things are not going smoothly with each party leader canvassing for himself, factionalism came out after the state working committee meeting.

Political speculation is rife after the absence of Raje in this working committee. The programmes for the next three months have been decided in this meeting and a consensus was reached on what should be made an election issue. In such a situation, the discussion about Raje’s absence in this significant meeting has intensified. While Raje had visited Nagaur district a few days ago and also addressed a meeting there. Meanwhile, factionalism also came to the fore after former Union Minister Subhash Maharia made a homecoming to the BJP. He has joined Congress after being denied a ticket from BJP in the last parliamentary polls. However, recently he returned and it is expected that he will be fielded against Govind Dotasara, state Congress president.

While BJP accorded a warm welcome to Maharia, Sumedhanand Saraswati, MP from Sikar said, “People keep coming and going, if there is 100 quintal of grains and handful of chickpeas will not matter. Maharia lost two to three polls due to his indiscipline,” he commented.

Meanwhile, Raje was also absent during the homecoming function of Maharia.

While sources said that she was not invited, Raje’s office did not revert when called.

The party is trying its best to show a united front by changing the leadership in the state, but things are not so rosy. Six months before the Assembly polls, the factionalism in the party raises many questions, that too, at a time when the party has lost in Karnataka and in Himachal as well.

While the party leaders claim that Raje was absent due to personal reasons, the other leaders confirmed that she has been meeting masses in her individual programmes. Her programme in Nagaur recently was a big hit.