Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda left for New Delhi on September 28 after a brief visit, during which they held discussions with party leaders, ahead of the release of first list of candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election. The rounds of meetings continued till late on Wednesday night.
While the two central leaders reportedly made an attempt to iron out differences among the leaders of the faction-ridden BJP State unit, speculations were rife that at least two Union Ministers and some MPs, might be asked to contest the election in the State.
Mr. Shah and Mr. Nadda, who arrived here by a special plane on Wednesday evening, met former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje separately amid ambiguity about her role in the election campaign. The party has already announced that it will highlight a “collective leadership” during the election, rather than projecting any individual as its Chief Ministerial face.
According to the sources in the BJP, Mr. Shah and Mr. Nadda discussed the matters related to ticket distribution, strategy, and other election-related issues at the meeting with the members of the party’s core committee and also obtained feedback on the party’s Parivartan Yatras, which were undertaken recently from four corners of the State.
A message was sent out that the party organisation was supreme and all leaders of the State unit had to work together to ensure victory in the election, due in December this year. It was also a move to keep in check the ambitions and rivalries of the regional leaders.
In addition to Ms. Raje, BJP State president C.P. Joshi, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Kailash Choudhary, and Arjun Ram Meghwal, Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, State election in-charge Pralhad Joshi, and Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore attended the meeting. Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari, who did not have a scheduled meeting with the central leaders, also met them briefly.
Though the BJP has released lists of candidates for election-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the exercise for making the selections in Rajasthan is believed to be held up because of factionalism in the party. The rounds of meetings in the State capital were seen as an attempt to resolve the differences and convince the leaders to project unity during the election campaign.
The first list for Rajasthan is likely to be released next week after a meeting of the BJP’s Central Election Committee in New Delhi. A scheduled meeting of Mr. Shah and Mr. Nadda with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionaries here on Thursday was cancelled before they left for New Delhi.
