Less than a year before the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, the opposition BJP is a divided house, with a war of words over the protests against leaking of question papers for recruitment examinations once again revealing multiple leaders with chief ministerial ambitions in the state. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena, 71, who himself led a massive protest that lasted nearly a fortnight, has set his sights on the 58-year-old state BJP president Satish Poonia, while simultaneously signalling a thawing of his relations with former CM Vasundhra Raje. The bonhomie between the Raje camp and Meena is a cause of concern for the Poonia camp, which in recent times has inducted several Raje detractors in the BJP’s state organisation. After he called off his protest, Meena questioned Poonia's leadership, citing lukewarm response from the state BJP to his protest. “Satish Poonia ji had told me that protests and dharnas by the Yuva Morcha will [simultaneously] begin, but nothing happened. I'm disappointed to say that the energy with which the BJP should have taken a stand on the issue under his leadership, is missing,” Meena told reporters before ending his protest. Even though Poonia had visited the protest site on January 31 and met Meena, the latter didn’t hold back from saying that Poonia hadn't attacked the Congress enough on the issue. “It feels today that Poonia ji couldn’t attack (the government) on this and other issues, the way he should have done,” Meena said, before he called off the protest, after holding talks with Rajasthan MoS (Home) Rajendra Singh Yadav, who apparently assured him that the government will take action within seven days. During the protest, Kirodi Lal raised slogans against the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, demanding a CBI inquiry into the cases of question paper leaks, walked the streets with a lantern in a symbolic gesture of searching for the government, and forced the administration to hold talks with him after marching to Jaipur with his supporters. What has surprised many within BJP ranks is the newfound camaraderie between Meena and former CM Raje. Back in 2008, Meena had left the BJP over differences with Raje, and returned to the party only before the 2018 Assembly polls, when he was sent to the Rajya Sabha. “The Congress government seems to be forgetting that MP Kirodi Lal [Meena] is not alone in his struggle to ensure that the youth of the state get their rights. All of us are with him,” Raje had said in a statement on January 29, acknowledging the thawing of relations. Soon after Raje’s statement, her loyalists started visiting the protest site to extend their support to Meena. Among Raje loyalists who met him there were Jaipur MP Ramcharan Bohra, former BJP state president Ashok Parnami, and MLAs Kali Charan Saraf and Narpat Singh Rajvi. Among Raje supporters who had met Meena even before Poonia could visit the protest site, was former minister Rohitash Sharma, whom Poonia had expelled from the BJP for six years in 2021, on charges of breach of discipline. At that time, Sharma had claimed Poonia had expelled him because he is a Raje supporter. Meena, who commands a massive following within the state's powerful tribal Meena community and holds the key to winning seats in eastern Rajasthan, has, of late, emerged as a parallel power centre, organising massive protests and demonstrations against the Gehlot government. Known as a streetfighter, Meena has addressed several press conferences on the question paper leak issue, dodged the police and climbed the Amagarh Fort to hoist a flag during a dispute in 2021, and has even received support of Congress MLAs on some occasions. Throughout his present term in the Rajya Sabha, Meena has kept grabbing headlines. In December last year, he introduced a Private Member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha on the fraught Uniform Civil Code. His attack on Poonia appears timed just before PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Dausa, a region from where Meena has been an MP in the past and holds influence. Sources in the Poonia camp termed Meena’s verbal volley as an effort to create ‘nuisance’. So far, Poonia himself has refrained from commenting on the issue. “I won't say anything on this. He [Meena] is a respected and experienced leader,” Poonia said recently.
