Event to mark ex-Rajasthan CM’s birthday on 8 March is being seen by her adversaries in BJP as a show of her political strength.
New Delhi: Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will celebrate her birthday on 8 March at Keshoraipatan (Kota division), which, according to her supporters, will be a religious affair. However, in view of the mammoth preparations, it is being seen as a great show of strength by Raje.
Vasundhara Raje has been organizing such religious programmes from time to time in what was seen as a show of strength in the past. As per the programme, she will have darshan of lord Krishna at the Keshoraipatan temple. Though her supporters describe it as a non-political event, her rivals see it as an exercise to show her political strength in the state.
Several MLAs and leaders, who are close to Raje, always get active statewide to make her event a grand success. Undeniably, there were efforts within the BJP to sideline Raje in the last three years despite the fact that she is vice president of the party as well. The party remained silent on the incident of attack on the residence of Raje’s son Dushyant Singh. Vasundhara Raje also expressed displeasure on this during the party meeting.
In fact, the party started sidelining Raje soon after the formation of a new team in Rajasthan. Some Delhi leaders backed the state functionaries for this as well. Despite this, Raje strengthened her grip and position in the state. Raje is the only leader who has teams of her supporters in every district. She had taken charge of the state at a time when there was no influential leader in Rajasthan after Bhairo Singh Shekhawat became vice president. She had to face resistance from within the party but she succeeded in upstaging her rivals.
The BJP formed a majority government under her leadership for the first time in 2003 in Rajasthan. Raje faced so many challenges even then. However, Raje continued to tighten her grip on the organisation. She lost in the next elections, but the party won more than 150 seats under her leadership in 2013. This was followed by a situation where Raje started facing challenges from Delhi.
There were efforts to replace her with a new face before the 2018 elections. Leaders like Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore were front-runners. But Raje managed to counter all the rivals in her own way. She spared no effort to win elections, but could not get the majority. The strong central leadership could not also do much against her. After changes in the state, Raje was offered responsibility at Centre, but she refused and continued to be in state politics.
There were many ups and downs in state politics in the last three years. There were attempts to topple the Gehlot government allegedly at the behest of BJP. Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat emerged as a significant face in Rajasthan. The state BJP unit under Satish Puniya was firmly behind Shekhawat. Raje was targeted by rivals. But the former CM Vasundhara Raje remained firm on her own path of politics. She formed her own teams across the state. Raje held programmes which were seen as political events. Raje’s Keshoraipatan event is also being seen as a political programme. Her rivals are said to be restless over this. It is said that more programmes like this will be held in future. Supporters say that the central brass should hand over the state party leadership to Raje. MLA Bhavani Singh Rajawat, who is a Raje loyalist, says that lakhs of people will attend her function. The party will take a call on Rajasthan leadership by the end of this year, but much will depend on the UP poll results as well. If BJP repeats the performance of 2017, then the high command will be much stronger than before. And if the party ends up with less than 250 seats, then the situation will not be the same.