Vasundhara Raje Will Not Dabble In Rajasthan Politics

The BJP’s high command as a strategy has kept former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje out of the state politics and has made the senior most legislator Gulab Chand Kataria as the leader of the Opposition, but Raje, as it turns out, still calls the shot in the BJP organisation in the state. When the 73 party legislators met to elect their leader, it was Vasundhara Raje who emerged as the unanimous leader, but the party’s hierarchy had kept her away from the coveted position.

She sportingly herself proposed the name of Kataria and the BJP veteran became the leader of the Opposition for the third time. This showed that as a tall leader of the BJP, Kataria would lead the party’s campaign for the coming Lok Sabha elections. But Kataria does not command the same popularity in the party’s cadre as Vasundhara Raje enjoys. But as she has been asked by the high command to work for the party’s organisation as the new vice president along with the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, she would not be allowed to dabble in the state politics and it is likely that she would be made in charge of some other state.

Though, this is likely that she will contest the Lok Sabha election from Rajasthan only. Her son, Dushyant Singh was elected from Jhalawar in the two Lok Sabha elections. In case she decides to contest the Lok Sabha poll, she may return to Jhalawar and may ask her son to contest the by-election from Jhalrapatan, her Assembly constituency after the victory in the Lok Sabha polls. There is a speculation that she might contest the Lok Sabha election from either Kota or Jaipur and her son would continue to contest from Jhalawar.

During the recent elections, the BJP won all the four Assembly seats of Jhalawar district and the BJP still remains a force to reckon with in the Hadauti region. The party won all the 25 seats in the 2014 elections and if the voting pattern of the Assembly election was any indication, the BJP is capable of winning at least 12 seats. The party cadre feels she remains the star attraction of the party and with no anti-incumbency factor now for the Lok Sabha elections, she could lead the party to greater success.

Meanwhile, the Congress has decided to field the former Union minister CP Joshi as the Speaker. Joshi has served as the Pradesh Congress president and also as the AICC general secretary. But with the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi ordering to make Joshi, the Speaker, it is certain that he would not be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha election. In a way, he has been kept out of state politics, something which he never wished for.
Inputs from Freepressjournal