Message is that the party brass won’t yield to pressure from Vasundhara Raje this time.
NEW DELHI: Appointment of Chandra Prakash Joshi as the new state president of BJP does not augur well for former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The message is that the party leadership will not yield to pressure from Raje this time.
However, the vacant post of Leader of Opposition can still keep Raje hopeful. The LoP post has been lying vacant since Gulab Chandra Kataria was appointed as Assam Governor. He resigned as LoP last month. Raje will be weakened politically if she is not given this post too. In other words, it would be the end of Raje’s era in the Rajasthan BJP. State BJP president C.P. Joshi would now be seen as CM face of the party for the upcoming polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take charge of the election campaign in Rajasthan which will go to polls this year-end.
Observers are wondering why BJP leadership replaced Satish Poonia with C.P. Joshi as state unit president as the former had been asked to continue on the post until elections despite the end of his three-year term.
But the high command’s quick decisions related to organisation within a month indicate that Prime Minister Modi is quite serious about Rajasthan. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s welfare schemes are, in fact, the cause of concern for BJP. PM Modi knows that if BJP does not return to power in Rajasthan, the challenges will grow. Therefore, the PM is so focussed on Rajasthan. He visited the state frequently. He suddenly shifted LoP Gulab Chand Kataria as Assam Governor, creating ripples in the state politics. Kataria’s appointment as Governor triggered the speculation about possible changes in the Rajasthan BJP. Speculation had it that C.P. Joshi would be made state BJP president, and LoP post would go either to Poonia or Raje. State president post has gone to Joshi. But there is complete silence on LoP. The leadership may leave the LoP post vacant. At the same time, the party cannot afford to ignore Poonia who was handling organisational responsibilities quite well. The factionalism will continue in BJP if Raje is given LoP post. The development suggests that it will not be easy for the high command to handle the party in Rajasthan in election year.
Now the party is in a dilemma. If Raje is projected, then the message will go that high command yielded to pressure. She has been organising religious activities in a show of strength. If Raje is sidelined, she is not going to remain quiet. In fact, Raje is the only BJP leader in Rajasthan who has a tremendous support base in every single constituency. Raje’s supporters say that she will not accept anything less than being projected CM face. It will be interesting to see the BJP’s politics in days to come in Rajasthan. But all this turbulence in the BJP camp is going to benefit CM Gehlot.