Raje ‘supporters’ form new front
KOTA: People claiming themselves as supporters of former CM Vasundhara Raje have formed a new outfit in the state in her name and announced its district executive committees in 25 districts.
After return of Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia, leader of opposition Gulabchand Kataria and deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore from with Delhi following their meeting national president JP Nadda, supporters of Raje under the aegis of Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Rajasthan Manch have started circulating a list of district executive committees on social media. The manch is also projecting Raje as the next CM candidate for 2023 polls.
A Jaipur-based lawyer and former state president of the BJP legal cell Vijay Bhardwaj has formed the new outfit.
“The Manch is non-political and it was formed to highlight welfare policies of Raje’s government; it is not a parallel organisation to the BJP,” Bhardwaj said.
Asked whether any BJP MP or MLA is part of the outfit, he said, “I do not want to go into all this but certainly people are contributing to spreading welfare schemes of Raje tenure.”
Asked if the outfit wants to see Raje as CM candidate again, Bhardwaj said, “Certainly the manch wants to see Raje back as CM of Rajasthan in 2023.”
Though Bhardwaj said the state BJP president is doing a “wonderful job” in running the party, Poonia has expressed displeasure before the media about the Manch activities.
When asked for his reaction, Poonia downplayed the manch. “This front and its messages are being floated on the social media and there is nothing on ground, so it is not very serious for us and if anything serious will be found we will collect information about it”.
“Anything which is circulated on social media is also referred to the central leadership but one has to keep an eye on the gravity and seriousness of such front”, he said.
“BJP is a self-sufficient and big party and it is undeterred by such developments,” he said. Asked if there is patronage to the front by Raje, he said, “So far there is no such thing but if something of such sort happens, then we will discuss”.
Political analyst Prakash Bhandari said, “Certainly there is factionalism in the BJP in the state and such incidents expose it. However, it is not easy to sideline Vasundhara Raje from the politics of BJP in Rajasthan since she is a force to reckon with.”
Senior journalist Tribhuvan said, “It is too early to speculate about the leadership decision in the BJP for 2023 as only 2 years of last assembly polls have passed and there are still 3 years ahead. The matter of some front by self-proclaimed supporters of Vasundhara Raje has attained prominence only due to Satish Poonia taking note of it.”
BJP MLA Pratap Singh Singhvi, a Raje supporter, said. “There can be fan following of any leader but it cannot be their fault. Vasundhara Raje and her mother Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia have dedicated their life to the BJP and Jana Sangh.”