Eight months ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly election, the BJP ended the ambiguity over its chief ministerial candidate and made it known that the former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje would lead the party in the run-up to the polls.
Though there is no surprise in the announcement, it was not expected this early as some of the prominent BJP leaders in the State were opposed to her leadership. Last year, Ms. Raje threatened to quit the party if the central leadership did not rein in her opponents and name her the chief ministerial candidate.
The newly elected BJP president Rajnath Singh on Saturday held discussions with senior Rajasthan leaders, and prevailed upon them to patch up and work for the party’s victory.
Mr. Singh told reporters, in the presence of senior leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, that “the party will work unitedly under the leadership of Vasundhara Raje” in the election scheduled for September/October.
Gulab Chand Kataria, who was at loggerheads with Ms. Raje, would be the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Mr. Singh said. Ms. Raje had quit the post.
Ms. Raje said: “The BJP is a family. In this, not just us but workers are also there. As Gulab Chand Kataria said, we will take it forward with everybody. I want to assure everybody that in this family, everybody will have a place and for this we all, Gulabji, will make the Rajasthan BJP strong and take it ahead. There are no two views on that.”
