A two-day brainstorming meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajasthan unit, held at Kumbhalgarh, addressed the issues of weaknesses as an Opposition party and internal differences, while discussing strategies for the 2023 Assembly election. The performance of all the 71 BJP MLAs was also evaluated on the occasion.
Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was conspicuous by her absence.
The party’s national general secretary, B.L. Santosh, presiding over the ‘Chintan Shivir’, reviewed organisational structure and activities and laid emphasis on ending the perception about “factionalism and infighting”.
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Power continuity
The BJP’s State office-bearers and core group members discussed the plans for booth management to be carried out till the elections. The party sources said a consensus emerged in the meeting, which concluded on Wednesday, for highlighting the social welfare schemes of the Narendra Modi government without projecting any individual leader as the Chief Ministerial candidate.
BJP State president Satish Poonia said after returning to Jaipur that the party would try to break the belief that power shifts alternately between the Congress and BJP after every five years. “We will ensure that the BJP returns to power in 2023 and forms the government each time. The party workers will be more vocal on political issues,” he said.
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No factionalism
Mr. Poonia denied that factionalism was adversely affecting the BJP and said it was the ruling Congress that was witnessing infighting and contradictions because of “two power centres”. He affirmed that the BJP was following an ideology rather than an individual.
The BJP has been giving importance to Ms. Raje’s detractors for the last several months and has even appointed some of them to important organisational posts. Senior leaders such as Mr. Poonia, Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajendra Rathore, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Arjun Ram Meghwal are said to be nursing Chief Ministerial ambitions.
The launch of an outfit in support of Ms. Raje – Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Rajasthan Manch – had created ripples in the political circles earlier this year amid speculations that it was floated at her own behest after her marginalisation by the party’s top leadership.
Signals of internal feud have been coming from the remarks of Ms. Raje’s supporters, who have asked the top leadership to announce her as the party’s CM candidate for the 2023 polls, saying she was the “most popular face” of the BJP in the State. Ms. Raje’s absence at the ‘Chintan Shivir’ has only confirmed internal differences.