In a Rajasthan BJP poster, a picture speaks a thousand words

This prompted Kataria to say, “We have to understand why it is big.” Rathore responded, “Aaj kal bhaisahab Dilli badi ho rahi (Bhaisaheb, these days Delhi is towering)”, while pointing to Shekhawat, leading to laughter.

An MP from Jodhpur, which is in central Rajasthan, Shekhawat is among those seen as nursing hopes of becoming chief minister should the BJP return to power in the state.

For ages, posters and hoardings of parties have often indicated which way the wind is blowing, or at least that’s what the politicians would have us believe, going by the jostling among them to get their faces on posters.

In that context, a hoarding outside the BJP state office in Jaipur – with a new face – has become a subject of chatter for the past few days. That new face is former CM Vasundhara Raje, whose supporters have never made any bones about her determination to return to the top job in the state, the apparent reluctance of the high command notwithstanding.

The hoarding outside the BJP office earlier had Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president J P Nadda in the left corner, while Kataria and BJP state president Satish Poonia were on the right. There was no Raje in the hoarding. Now, between the images of Kataria and Poonia, matching them in size, is Raje.

Those close to Poonia, who is one of Raje’s main detractors in the Rajasthan BJP, deny the poster holds any meaning. “Her photo was in the Jan Aakrosh Yatra posters too a few months ago. So this is nothing new,” a Poonia supporter said.

“It merely indicates collective leadership, to send a message of unity. If you see other states which go to polls, you will see a similar pattern, with even Union ministers eventually finding space in the posters and hoardings as elections approach. In the same way, one can expect Union ministers from Rajasthan to turn up on the party’s hoardings close to elections,” the supporter said.

However, it was after Poonia was appointed BJP state president in September 2019 that Raje’s face disappeared from the party’s hoardings outside the party office and in other parts of the state.

Raje’s supporters, who wait keenly for any promising gesture from the Centre, see the new poster as a “culmination of everything that the Centre was doing”, implying a failed attempt to dislodge her through Poonia. Said a loyalist: “New people came in, they were given responsibilities. But the party lost multiple bypolls, (Poonia led) Jan Aakrosh Yatra received a lukewarm response, and there are other issues such as splits within the party… The party is now saying that you (Poonia) have had your chance, and it’s time for facts.”

Raje’s supporter added that it was she who gave the BJP its first “pure” victory in 2003 (a simple majority of 120 seats out of 200), and its best ever show, in 2013 (a massive 163), while keeping the state unit united. Before that, under Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the BJP had won 85 seats in 1990, and 95 in 1993.

The loyalist added that they were not going by the poster alone. “It does not tell the full story. She has been present despite her absence on posters.”

Recently, Raje had said, “workers should compete to be among the public, and not in the press or on posters”.

In December 2021, after her face was removed from the party’s Akrosh rally posters in Jhunjhunu, Raje, during a visit to pay tributes to an IAF officer, had urged that the matter not be raised. “No politics please,” she said.

Incidentally, in June 2022, during a ‘vidhayak-sansad aapke ward (MLA, corporator in your ward)’ programme in her constituency Jhalrapatan, Raje had made sure that Poonia’s photo was present along with Modi and Nadda in all the publicity posters.