Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje visited Delhi for the first time since the Lalit Modi controversy erupted, but stayed only three and a half hours — returning to Jaipur without meeting any top BJP leader. Her office in Jaipur said the chief minister was in New Delhi only for the meeting of the Niti Aayog, and returned immediately “because she did not have a pre-fixed meeting with anyone”. Her office rejected as “lies” reports that she was denied an appointment by senior party leaders, and that she did not get any assurance from them. [related-post] The hours the chief minister spent in Delhi had their share of drama. From the time she got into a waiting Honda Accord at the VIP gate of Delhi airport’s Terminal 1A at 9.24 am to the time she returned to the airport to board her flight back at 12.35 pm, Raje kept the media on tenterhooks. On the ride from the airport to the NITI Aayog — where she attended a meeting of the Chief Ministers’ Sub-Group — one of the vehicles in her cavalcade scraped against a vehicle carrying a TV crew that was chasing her. Her office in Jaipur was quick to react. “Some television channels encircled Raje’s car and were racing their vehicles at uncontrolled speeds,” it said. As a result, “accidents were about to occur at many places”. A vehicle belonging to a television channel had hit a government vehicle in her cavalcade, the statement said — “This also caused jams at two places.” Raje’s office also questioned the media’s role — whether the fourth pillar of democracy was acting correctly. At the NITI Aayog, Raje used the rear entrance, avoiding the cameras at the front gate. After the meeting, she switched vehicles to dodge the media, and drove straight to the airport — even as Rajasthan government officials maintained she had gone to Scindia Villa in South Delhi to rest. This triggered another round of speculation that a meeting with BJP leaders could take place later in the day. She was, however, back in Jaipur by lunch time.
