Jaipur, May 7 (IANS) The crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Rajasthan unit continued Monday as more party legislators came out in support of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and demanded that she be made the state president to lead the party in the assembly polls next year.
Meanwhile, party leaders both in New Delhi and here termed it an internal matter that would be soon solved amicably.
Over 60 legislators have offered their resignation over the past two days showing their solidarity with Raje, party sources said.
In a new stance, Raje supporters are demanding removal of party’s state president Arun Chaturvedi and the party’s in-charge Kaptan Singh Solanki.
“The legislators who have offered to resign in support of Raje have demanded that she be made the party’s Rajasthan unit in-charge. There are also whispers regarding seeking assurance from the party high command in New Delhi to declare Raje the next chief minister candidate for BJP in Rajasthan,” said a senior BJP leader pleading anonymity.
The simmering differences within the party had come to the fore Saturday evening when Raje threatened to resign from the party’s primary membership over senior BJP legislator Gulab Chand Kataria’s ‘Lok Jagaran Yatra’.
“It really has turned out to be a fight between RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) and non-RSS supporters as Chaturvedi and Kataria are being supported by RSS faction. Raje, on the other hand, is being supported by non-RSS faction… it really would be interesting to see who wins this battle,” said Rahul Rajpurohit, a keen political watcher.
Demanding that the yatra be cancelled, Raje Saturday had stormed out of the party’s core committee meeting in Jaipur and threatened to quit. Katariya had called off the yatra immediately after Raje’s threat.
“Over 60 legislators have offered their resignation to Raje since Sunday. Over 50 legislators including Kalicharan Saraf, Digamber Singh, Gyan Dev Ahuja, Rohitashva Sharma, Ashok Parnami and Mohanlal Gupta had already offered their resignation by Sunday afternoon. They met her at her Jaipur residence where a series of meetings are being held,” said another BJP leader, who did not want to be named.
There are reports that Raje has even refused to go to Delhi after she was invited for talks by senior party leaders, including Arun Jaitley and Kirit Somaiya.
The political differences have put the party’s headquarters in New Delhi on high alert keeping in view the state assembly elections in Rajasthan next year. Senior party leaders are in contact with Raje and Chaturvedi.
