Raje meets Nadda after her followers announce yatra

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Feb 16 (SocialNews.XYZ) Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's meeting with BJP President J.P. Nadda on Monday in Delhi has raised many eyebrows in Rajasthan's political circles at a time when Raje's followers have already started an intensive campaign demanding her projection as the BJP's chief ministerial face for the 2023 Assembly polls and have announced rallies and yatras to make her emerge as the winner in the ongoing power tussle within the state BJP unit.

On Sunday, Raje's followers including MLAs and former MLAs, called a mammoth gathering in Kota where they announced to take out a 'yatra' from April onwards, with an estimated 50,000 people. The leaders also confirmed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and state BJP in-charge Arun Singh will be invited for this yatra too.

Speaking in reference to Raje's candidature, Bhavani Singh Rajawat, former MLA, said, "There is no substitute for Raje in state politics. Hence the state BJP will have to declare her as the next CM face."

Former MLA Prahlad Gunjal also announced Raje as their leader and said that no other leader is acceptable to the party apart from Raje.

A day after this mammoth gathering, Raje's meeting with Nadda was seen as a crucial development in party politics as she has been skipping many significant party meetings earlier, the most recent being the BJP's MLA meeting before the start of the Assembly session on February 9.

However, this time, she called Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria and cited the poor health of her daughter-in-law as the reason for her absence from the meeting.

Meanwhile, the party office was abuzz discussing how the former CM managed to meet all senior leaders in Delhi but is now unable to attend the state party meeting.

Earlier she had skipped the core committee meeting as well which was attended by both national and state leaders.

Raje has also maintained a distance from state party headquarters since the last many months.

Meanwhile, Raje will represent the national BJP, being the national vice-president and shall face Satish Poonia, who will represent Rajasthan as state party president during the national organisational meeting called in Delhi on February 21.

In this meeting, Raje will face Poonia whom she has been avoiding since the last many months and it will be interesting, a BJP worker told IANS.

Earlier, BJP leaders confirmed that Raje is also planning to take out a power yatra which shall start from Krishna temple in Bharatpur on her birthday which falls on International Women's Day.

This will be more like a power yatra which will be taken out in the form of a grand show with a huge convoy and fleet of cars, confirmed a BJP worker.

Source: IANS