A day after BJP leader Vasundhara Raje threatened to resign following differences over the proposed march of State party leader Gulabchand Kataria, 54 of the 79 party MLAs in Rajasthan offered to quit in her support, intensifying the feud and exposing the battle for the chief ministerial candidature for the 2013 Assembly elections.
The MLAs gathered at Ms. Raje's Civil Lines residence here on Sunday and submitted their resignations to her, amid reports that BJP president Nitin Gadkari has called a meeting in New Delhi for Monday.
Ms. Raje, who is Leader of the Opposition, had taken exception to Mr. Kataria's plan to take out a “Jan Jagaran Yatra” in southern Rajasthan and sent out signals that anyone other than her being projected as the BJP's chief ministerial face was not acceptable to her. The supporters raised slogans expressing solidarity with her and many of the MLAs described her as the leader with a stature “taller than that of the party.”
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