Rajasthan BJP puts up brave front amid internal feuds

Confronted with internal feuds after an outfit in help of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was launched right here just lately, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajasthan unit has put up a brave front and denied factionalism as rumours. The BJP leaders have insisted that there have been “no divisions” within the social gathering.

Though the formation of Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Rajasthan Manch created ripples within the political circles right here, the BJP leaders had been fast to dismiss it as insignificant and pointed in direction of factionalism within the ruling Congress.

Ms. Raje has prevented making public appearances and her identify is usually lacking within the posters of the social gathering’s common occasions.

Senior leaders Gulab Chand Kataria, Satish Poonia, Rajendra Rathore, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Arjun Ram Meghwal are mentioned to be nursing chief ministerial ambitions. According to the political observers, the Manch has been floated at Ms. Raje’s behest after her marginalisation by the social gathering’s prime management.

Signals of internal feud got here from the remarks of Ms. Raje’s former ministerial colleague and Chhabra MLA, Pratap Singh Singhvi, earlier this week. Mr. Singhvi requested the BJP to announce Ms. Raje because the social gathering’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 Assembly election, saying she was the “most popular face” of the BJP within the State.

Significantly, the BJP has been giving significance to Ms. Raje’s detractors for the final a number of months and has even appointed a few of them to essential organisational posts. Former Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari, who had left the social gathering over variations with Ms. Raje, was additionally inducted again into the social gathering final month.

BJP State president Satish Poonia mentioned right here that the social gathering’s parliamentary board would take a call on projecting a person because the chief ministerial candidate.

‘PM only face’

“No one is bigger than the party. The BJP has only one face, that of [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi,” he mentioned at a press convention.

Mr. Poonia additionally distanced himself from some social media teams created for supporting him and mentioned the messages being made viral must be “dismissed as someone’s mischief”. He mentioned the upcoming city native physique elections in 20 districts later this month had been extra essential, for which the BJP had began making preparations.

The BJP has tried to shift give attention to factionalism in Congress within the aftermath of riot by the then Deputy CM Sachin Pilot and the MLAs supporting him in July final 12 months. “The Congress is using Rajasthan to save its credibility. Its support to the agitating farmers amounts to political hypocrisy,” Mr. Poonia mentioned.

The Congress has picked holes within the BJP’s claims of getting confronted the ruling social gathering in a united method.