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This is an archive article published on June 30, 2018
Madan Lal Saini, BJP leader close to RSS, named party’s Rajasthan unit chief
Although Saini was not CM Vasundhara Raje’s choice, the appointment is seen as a move in which her will prevailed over that of the party’s national president.
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Although Saini was not CM Vasundhara Raje’s choice, the appointment is seen as a move in which her will prevailed over that of the party’s national president.
ENDING UNCERTAINTY of more than two months, the BJP on Friday appointed Madan Lal Saini as the chief of the party’s Rajasthan unit. The appointment of Saini, an OBC leader, is seen as a middle path accepted by BJP chief Amit Shah, who was keen on appointing Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat to the post, and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who opposed it vehemently. Although Saini was not Raje’s choice, the appointment is seen as a move in which her will prevailed over that of the party’s national president.
Sources in BJP said Raje, who has been fighting to see that Shekhawat, a Rajput, is not nominated as the state unit president in the election year, has approved Saini’s appointment. Saini is considered a hardcore ideological leader who has been working closely with the RSS. Saini was MLA from Udaipurwati in Jhunjhunu, and was elected to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year.
Differences between Shah and Raje over the choice of the state unit chief is believed to have delayed the appointment for more than two months. With the BJP national leadership assessing that infighting, personality clashes, and indifferent approach to organisational issues have weakened the party and the government in Rajasthan, it had asked state unit president Ashok Parnami to resign. Parnami had quit in April.
BJP workers celebrate the appointment of the new Rajasthan unit president, in Jaipur on Friday. Rohit Jain Paras
Although the party’s national leadership was upset with Raje’s style of functioning, sources said the leadership assessed that the party cannot afford to completely antagonise her. There have been multiple rounds of discussions between Shah and Raje over the appointment of Rajasthan BJP chief, sources said.
Beleaguered by a series of routs in the by-elections and local body polls in Rajasthan, the BJP had swung into action in the state due for elections later this year – both the party and the government have set in motion a series of damage-control measures for social engineering and caste consolidation.
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