Raje to attend BJP’S core panel meeting today
JAIPUR: Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje will attend the state BJP’S core committee meeting on Tuesday, party leaders said.
Raje could not attend the first meeting of the committee in Jan- uary, which led to speculations about her differences with the state leadership.
Factionalism within Rajasthan BJP has become more evident recently, with MLAS considered close to Raje writing to state party chief Satish Poonia, complaining of being ignored in the state assembly. Earlier, her supporters held a meeting in the name of a ‘chintan baithak’ in Kota city and pitched for her to be the chief ministerial candidate in the next assembly polls.
Party sources said that in the national executive meeting, BJP national president JP Nadda asked leaders to set things right in the state, especially ahead of the bypolls.
“The leadership is well aware of the political differences, sentiments of MLAS and party workers, and unwarranted developments that are affecting the party’s image,” a senior BJP leader familiar with the developments said on the condition of anonymity.
“The core committee meeting will not only discuss the observers’ panels for the upcoming bypolls on four assembly constituencies but also the MLAS’ complaint of being neglected in the House and unwarranted statements by leaders that encourage factionalism.”
Senior BJP MLA Rajendra Rathore said, “There is no factionalism or groupism in the BJP; we have only one leader,
Narendra Modi.” On the MLAS’ complaint to Poonia, he said, “It’s the state party chief who can make any comments after looking into the issue. But what happened is not as per the culture of the BJP. I have no reservation in saying that the leader of opposition and I have always encouraged those who wish to speak in the assembly. We have even made arrangements for providing content to members on related subjects. I don’t know why this issue was raised.”
Rathore said the letter written by the MLAS will be discussed at the core committee meeting. “I am surprised with the news. None of the MLAS raised the issue in the legislature party meeting, and around 80% of the MLAS named in the news have spoken in one or other way,” he said. “We will speak to the MLAS and resolve the issue. Over 46 MLAS spoke in the assembly on the governor’s speech.”
The core committee meeting will be chaired by state party chief Poonia and members are Raje, union ministers Gajendra Singh, Kailash Choudhary and Arjun Ram Meghwal, MP Om Mathur, leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria, deputy LOP Rajendra Rathore, CP Joshi, Kanakmal Katara, national general secretary Bhupendra yadav, secretary Alka Gujjar, state incharge Arun Singh and co-incharge Bharti Ben.