After a detente with the BJP’s national leadership, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has visited temples and pilgrimage centres in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh amid signs that she is going to get a “defined role” in this year’s Assembly election. Ms. Raje’s upcoming tour to four Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand is also an indication of the party reposing confidence in her.
Starting from Tuesday, she will participate in the BJP’s nationwide outreach programmes in Jharkhand to mark the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government. According to the party sources, she will reach Deoghar and will visit till Thursday four constituencies — Godda, Giridih, Dumka and Kodarma — all which are held by the BJP.
The Opposition BJP in Rajasthan gave indications at a rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ajmer on May 31 that it wanted to end factionalism and put up a united face with an important role to be assigned to Ms. Raje. The two-time Chief Minister was seated next to Mr. Modi on the stage at the rally.
Even as Ms. Raje’s supporters have been clamouring for projecting her as the chief ministerial face for the Assembly polls, she has had uneasy relations with the BJP’s national leadership in New Delhi after losing power to the Congress in 2018. The party’s State unit has been mired in factionalism, because of which president Satish Poonia was replaced with Chittorgarh MP C.P. Joshi in March this year.
Karnataka defeat
Following its humiliating defeat in Karnataka, the BJP has sought to address leadership issues, taking into account the clout of its regional satraps, in the poll-bound States. Ms. Raje’s one-on-one meetings with BJP national president J.P. Nadda and general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh in New Delhi last week assumed significance in this context.
The BJP, which was earlier in favour of going to polls only on Mr. Modi’s name, is reportedly reconsidering the matter, which is visible in the political task outside Rajasthan being assigned to Ms. Raje. The sources in the party’s State unit said Ms. Raje might be appointed the head of the election campaign committee in the run-up to the Assembly poll.
Ms. Raje took a dig at the power tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot while addressing a gathering at the ‘Ram Katha’ event at a temple in Rishikesh on Sunday. She said while Lord Ram and his brother Bharat made sacrifices by quitting the throne, the two leaders in Rajasthan were fighting for the chair and shooting arrows at each other.
The former Chief Minister said the vision of Ram Rajya would come true when religion and politics go hand in hand. “Keep Lord Ram in your heart and chant his name in your mind. No one can spoil anything, but do not stab anyone while chanting Ram, which is happening nowadays,” she said.
Ms. Raje also criticised the Congress government for stopping the ambitious Jal Swavalamban Abhiyan launched during her regime for creating water harvesting structures as well as the plan for inter-linking of rivers. She said she had formulated the plan to achieve former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s vision to bring water security to the parched areas through inter-basin transfer of water.
