Some newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs met former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje at her Civil Lines residence on Sunday, amid suspense over whom the party will pick for the chief ministerial post in the state.
Sources in the Raje camp said she would be meeting the party high command on Thursday.
Vasundhara Raje may have had her faults but she is an unconventional and brave leader who deserves better, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan assembly Vasundhara Raje on Friday dubbed as "misleading and baseless" media reports that she is likely to quit Bharatiya Janata Party and float her own party before assembly elections are held in the state in 2013.
Vasundhara Raje, who led the Bharatiya Janata Paty to a landslide victory in the Rajasthan assembly polls, was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister for the second time, in the presence of Narendra Modi and other top party leaders.
Raje is expected to meet party chief Rajnath Singh and L K Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, in New Delhi on August 22, soon after they return from the ongoing chintan baithak (brainstorming session) in Shimla.
Terming Gehlot's "praises" for her as a big conspiracy, Raje in a statement on Sunday night said he "has made such outrageous and untrue allegations because of the rebellion happening in his own party and diminishing mass base".
Through gestures and decisions, the BJP high command has signalled that Raje may not be the lead actor but rather play a supporting role in a high-stakes election in its stamping ground.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje will not resign as the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly "for now" and would call a Legislature Party meeting by August 26, her spokesman said a day after the standoff over the issue eased with Bharatiya Janata Party leadership not setting a deadline for her to quit.
Though the MLAs termed it a courtesy meeting, they said they will support Raje if the party leadership chooses her for the post in the state.
Announcing Raje's appointment in the presence of senior party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, BJP President Rajnath Singh said party leader Gulab Chand Kataria will be the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly. He will take over from Raje who quit the post.
The party also decided to field Narpat Singh Rajvi from Chittorgarh after its earlier decision to deny the five-term MLA, who is the son-in-law of its stalwart leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, renomination from his Vidhyadhar Nagar seat. This triggered a backlash from a section of party workers.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh is learnt to have sought an explanation from former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje for delaying her resignation as Opposition leader in the Assembly in defiance of the party's parliamentary board decision.
At a public meeting in Jhalawar on Friday, while referring to her MP son Dushyant Singh's progress as a people's representative, Raje candidly said she felt she can retire now.
Despite a clean sweep for the BJP in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had to put up a fight to get at least one MP from her state into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje finally resigned as the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly on Friday.Raje, who initially refused to resign, has been dodging the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for over two months on the issue.However, she did not hand over her resignation letter to party president Rajnath Singh. Raje met Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani in Delhi on Friday and handed over her resignation letter.
Meena, however, refused to elaborate on the incident, which is seen as an attempt at 'badabandi' -- holing up elected leaders in resorts as a show of strength.
In Jhalawar, which her only child Dushyant Singh represents in the Lok Sabha, Vasundhara Raje, the BJP's chief ministerial candidate, told reporters, 'I thought we would win 120, 125 seats, but it is going to be more than that.' Shahnawaz Akthar reports.
She will be covering six districts of Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Banswara, Rajsamand, Bhilwara and Ajmer during the yatra.
In a bid to defuse the crisis in Bharatiya Janata Party over Vasundhara Raje's continuance as Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, the party's central leadership has summoned her to the capital on August 31 to meet senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu.
Raje however, said that "Gehlot's 'praises' is a big conspiracy" against her.
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The absence of Rajasthan BJP leadership in Narendra Modi's rallies in the poll-bound state is fuelling speculations. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports
In a new twist to the Lalit Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj row, newly-emerged documents show that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje agreed to secretly testify in the former's United Kingdom immigration application in 2011.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday announced a slew of sops, especially for the tribals, while replying to the governor's address in the state assembly.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who has been facing the opposition's pressure to quit in connection with the 'Lalitgate' may have survived the first salvo, but it remains to be seen how dexterously she manages the show in the coming days, says Prakash Bhandari.
Peeved over the alleged failure of the Vasundhara Raje government in getting them Scheduled Tribe status, an influential Gujjar organisation on Monday said that it would boycott the ruling BJP in the coming Rajasthan assembly elections. "The BJP government has not only ditched us but also broken its promises made to Gujjars, for recommending the Centre to accord ST status," said president of Rajasthan Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti Kirorisingh Bainsla.
This is the first reaction by senior BJP leader Raje who has been the chief minister of the state for two terms.
'In 17 districts, the Congress could not open its account. How is that a government that did so much for the people saw 18 of its ministers losing?' asks Vasundhara Raje who led the BJP to a historic victory in the Rajasthan election. P B Chandra reports.
'This bill is to relieve the government of accountability and to cover up its corruption.'
A day after Bhartiya Janata Party's veteran leader Jaswant Singh accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of betraying him as it was he who had support her candidature for the chief minister's post, Raje hits back saying that party members should accept the party's decision.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will hold a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Legislature Party in Jaipur on Wednesday, to chalk out the strategy for the upcoming state assembly session.According to sources, the issue of electing a new Leader of Opposition as per the direction of the party's high command is not likely to figure in the meeting. Raje has been asked by the BJP's central leadership to resign.
Manvendra Singh will take on the Rajasthan CM from Jhalrapatan constituency.
While the going for Dushyant Singh in Jhalawar is not tough, winning Jalore is a tough battle for Vaibhav Gehlot.
'Change is the rule of politics.'
Lalit Modi's interview with television news channel explaining how Vasundhara Raje took his wife to Portugal for cancer treatment shows that he is seeking revenge against the Rajasthan chief minister.
Never before has the BJP faced such a crisis over the nomination of the Chief Minister as it is facing now, discovers Prakash Bhandari, veteran observer of Rajasthan politics.
Gehlot, whose government had faced a rebellion led by his former deputy Sachin Pilot in 2020, said he has adopted the policy of "forgive and forget" and has moved on. He asserted that he has not opposed grant of any party tickets to Pilot's supporters.
The Congress leader, responsible for the party's victory in the recent bypolls, has slogged it out, meeting people, establishing contact and listening, all the time, to people.
Bharatiya Janata party state president for Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje is a blue-blooded category of politician who inherited political acumen from her mother late Vijayaraje Scindia, the queen-mother of the erstwhile Gwalior state in Madhya Pradesh.
The election management committee and the election manifesto committee were formed by the party's national president J P Nadda.
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