Stage whispers from Rajasthan BJP: Enter Vasundhara Raje

While in Sirohi, Raje let this pass, in Ajmer, when Rathore again came too close to Modi, Raje, who was just behind them, gently nudged Rathore away.

Given the bitterly contested space at the top in the Rajasthan BJP, and the warm vibes that Modi made a point to display with Raje on the stage, it was clear that the former CM was back where she believes she belongs, just as the elections come around. Not that she ever went away.

Though Raje was also a presence at earlier public rallies by the PM in Rajasthan, there was a buzz around the Ajmer rally for various reasons.

Between September last year and the Ajmer rally on May 31, the PM held public meetings on five occasions in Rajasthan. In the last two, at Sirohi and Ajmer, Raje was seated prominently next to him on the dais. But Ajmer stood apart because it was held after the Karnataka Assembly election results, where the BJP’s loss was for a large part blamed on its sidelining of state satraps, particularly former CM B S Yediyurappa.

Raje has also found herself pushed to the margins in the Modi-Amit Shah dispensation in the BJP. However, post-Karnataka, the party high command realises that it can’t alienate its most popular leader in Rajasthan, whatever its personal equations with her.

A BJP worker points out: “Raje was present in all the publicity material and hoardings etc for the rally, and figures prominently in advertisements by the party now.”

In other ways too, things have been tilting in Raje’s favour. First, Gulab Chand Kataria was moved out of Rajasthan and made Assam Governor, then state president Satish Poonia was replaced with C P Joshi and made Deputy Leader of the Opposition; both Kataria and Poonia are seen as Raje’s rivals.

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, also seen as Raje’s competitor, is facing accusations in the Sanjivani credit cooperative society scam and is being probed by the Rajasthan Police.

Another leader whose name has been emerging as a CM face contender, Ashwini Vaishnaw, will now be contending for some time with the Odisha train disaster.

Amidst all this, Raje also made a return to the main hoarding outside the BJP’s state office in Jaipur earlier.

“For the last few elections, there is always chatter before the polls that the BJP may bring in someone else in Rajasthan. But as elections come closer, the party ends up backing Raje as she remains the party’s strongest leader. This time seems no different,” a party leader said.