Passed over for Rajasthan CM post, BJP warms up to ‘absent’ Vasundhara Raje before Lok Sabha polls

Raje, a six-time MLA and five-time MP, was among the frontrunners for the CM’s post after the BJP returned to power in the Assembly polls held late last year. However, the party leadership chose first-time MLA Sharma for the post. Since then, Raje had distanced herself from the party and a month into Sharma’s tenure, she had skipped three key party programmes.

The first was the oath-taking ceremony of the ministers on December 30. The second instance was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Jaipur ahead of the All India Conference of Director Generals and Inspector Generals of Police and met the party’s newly elected legislators at the state party office in the city on January 5. However, Raje was among the absentees. Then, at the party’s January 12 meeting for the Lok Sabha elections, all the top party leaders were present except Raje.

However, she was among those who received Modi at the Jaipur airport on January 25 ahead of his programmes with French President Emmanuel Macron, the chief guest for Republic Day this year, in the city.

CM Sharma’s meeting with Raje was seen as an attempt to normalise relations ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “She is a two-term CM and indispensable for the party. And her influence is not just in the Hadoti region but all across Rajasthan,” a party leader said.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP is aiming for a hat-trick of clean sweeps in Rajasthan – in 2014 and 2019, the party had won all 25 of the state’s parliamentary seats. “Although the party is comfortably placed, the party doesn’t want to affect its prospects even on a single seat in Rajasthan,” the BJP leader said.

Leaving no stone unturned – like in the recent Karanpur by-election, where the party lost but had named its candidate Surenderpal Singh a minister with four portfolios before he was even elected as an MLA – the BJP hopes to keep Raje in good humour ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Additionally, with the party aiming to improve on its overall seat tally of 303 in 2019, it is imperative for the BJP to hold on to its existing seats.

After initially remaining quiet for a few weeks since she was overlooked by the party for the CM’s post, Raje has become active again. On January 16, a saffron chadar was offered at Ajmer Dargah on her behalf. Then on January 22, she prayed at temples in Jaipur to mark the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, met Governor Kalraj Mishra on January 24, and now has been active in her Jhalrapatan Assembly constituency in the eastern Hadoti region over the weekend.