BJP Parliamentary board fails to take decision on Raje

A defiant Vasundhara Raje got a temporary reprieve as the BJP Parliamentary board deferred a decision on her future in the party.

Vasundhara Raje got a further reprieve as a meeting of senior leaders of the BJP failed to sort out the issue of her resignation as Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly which it had demanded following the party’s poor show in the Lok Sabha elections.

Considered an informal meeting of the Parliamentary Board,the leaders held parleys for over three hours,decided to depute senior leader Sushma Swaraj to talk to Raje,whom Venkaiah Naidu had not been able to persuade to step down,reliable party sources said.

Naidu,at present out of the country,would,however,continue to be part of the exercise. Party President Rajnath Singh and senior leader L K Advani were among those present at the meeting.

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The sources said the issue is expected to come up again at the next Board meeting on October 22,the day counting of votes in the Assembly elections in three states would be taken up.

They,however,said that since by-elections to some Assembly seats in Rajasthan are due on November 7,no decision may be taken till then.

Meanwhile,Raje,who was summoned by the party leadership to Delhi yesterday,did not turn up citing the absence of Venkaiah Naidu,who is the pointsman in the episode,the sources said.

Both Swaraj and Naidu are considered close to Advani and so is Raje.

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A senior party leader said in a lighter vein that BJP has decided against taking major decisions on the occasion of Dhanteras. This was in apparent reference to the sacking of Uma Bharti on the same day ahead of Diwali 4 years ago.

Prominent Parliamentary board members who were not present in Thursday’s meeting included Murli Manohar Joshi,Gopinath Munde,Venkaiah Naidu and Bal Apte.

The BJP had earlier officially announced that meeting of its Central Election Committee will be held on Thursday,but since most of the Central Election Committee members are also in the Parliamentary board,therefore it was decided to hold the meeting of the Parliamentary Board.

Sources said that the RSS attack on the Nitish Kumar government for allotting land to Aligarh Muslim University to open a campus in Bihar came up for discussion. It also discussed the issue of Sino-India relations.

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After the party’s poor performance in both Rajasthan assembly elections and Lok Sabha polls,Raje was asked to resign from her post. She refused to abide by the party’s decision and also got a shot in the arm when more than 50 Rajasthan MLAs came to Delhi and pledged support to her.

Later,when Raje was asked to meet Naidu,she failed to meet him even though she came to Delhi on the ground she was unwell.

For Kolkata, the IMD has forecast mostly cloudy skies with light to moderate rain or thundershowers on most days through Panchami.

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