The long drawn-out war of nerves between the BJP central leadership and Vasundhara Raje has at last ended.
It began after the leadership conveyed to her that she must resign as Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan in the wake of the party’s poor poll performance in the State. Ms. Raje quit the post on Friday.
After waiting in vain for weeks for her letter, senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu was told to meet her and secure her resignation. She fixed appointments with him but each time failed to turn up, finally saying she was down with a viral fever. After that, the party asked Sushma Swaraj to secure her resignation. Again, Ms. Raje failed to keep her dates with Ms. Swaraj, each time coming up with an excuse.
Finally it was conveyed to Ms. Raje in no uncertain words that she must comply with the party directive or face disciplinary action. Party leaders here believe that her letter finally came as the BJP Parliamentary Board, which met on Friday, could have suspended her or taken some other harsh action.
Meanwhile, Ms. Swaraj told journalists here that no time frame had yet been fixed for the election of a new legislature party leader in Rajasthan. The Board meeting did not discuss the issue.
Leaders from the three States, where Assembly election results were announced on Thursday, briefed the Board members on the poll outcome. State office-bearers will meet to discuss and analyse the results in detail.
While in Haryana, fourth-time MLA Anil Vij has been appointed leader of the four-member Legislature Party, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar have been nominated as central observers for electing the legislature party leader in Maharashtra. For Arunachal Pradesh, Bijoya Chakraborty will be the observer.
