New Delhi: Senior Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday defied her party president’s order and held a meeting of 68 BJP legislators in Jaipur.
Raje chaired the meeting of the BJP’s legislature party as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly in the state assembly, but party president Rajnath Singh had told her not to do so.
Raje, early this month, refused to follow Rajnath’s instruction to resign as Leader of Opposition. The former Rajasthan chief minister argues that she alone could not be blamed for the party’s defeat in the General Elections, which left it with four Lok Sabha seats compared to 21 in the 2004 polls.
She brought around 50 Rajashtan BJP MLAs to New Delhi to show her influence in the state. A compromise was worked out and it was decided on August 17 that Raje would resign at her timing, preferably after the session of the Rajasthan assembly gets over.
Sources in the BJP tell CNN-IBN Rajnath is upset with Raje because she is now insisting that a person of her choice be appointed as Leader of Opposition.
Raje, at the meeting, will discuss the party’s suspension of two MLAs who support her. Gyandeo Ahuja and Rajendra Rathore were suspended for coming to Delhi and supporting Raje—a step the BJP called “anti-party activity”.
Raje wants the suspension of two MLAs revoked but Singh has refused to do so. The two MLAs attended Raje’s meeting, which decided to boycott the Rajasthan Assembly beginning on Thursday.
IANS reports Singh on Tuesday asked senior Raje to quit as Leader of Opposition within the next three days.
Singh needs to appear firm with Raje. The BJP has sacked senior leader Jaswant Singh for flouting the party’s ideological line in a biography he wrote of Pakistan’s founder M A Jinnah. It has asked party leader Arun Shourie to explains his comments against the party leadership. It cannot afford to treat Raje’s defiance lightly.
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