Rajasthan: BJP not to project anybody as CM's face in upcoming assembly election

The decision of the national executive of the BJP not to project anybody as the Chief Minister’s face in Rajasthan for the next year’s assembly election has caused ripples in the Vasundhara Raje camp.

Vasundhara Raje has served the state as the Chief Minister for two terms and despite the fact that Vasundhara, who is the national vice president was sidelined by the party, she still has a very large following among the party’s cadres.

Ever since the BJP president J P Nadda made a categorical announcement that nobody would be projected as the Chief Minister face in the next year’s Vidhan Sabha election, the supporters of Vasundhara Raje are disappointed.

Nadda is aware of the fact that the state unit is faction-ridden and there are many aspirants for the Chief Minister's post and any move to project a single person as the face of the Chief Minister would harm the party’s electoral prospects. But there is no denying the fact that Vasundhara Raje remains the tallest leader of the state with a massive support base. Her support base is far more than the popularity of the BJP president Satish Punia, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, deputy leader of the Opposition and former minister Rajendra Singh Rathor, and Rajya Sabha member Om Mathur.

During a programme on Friday to celebrate the birth centenary of the late BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha member and governor Sunder Singh Bhandari, Vasundhara Raje who shared the dais with the BJP president Nadda received thunderous applause when her name was called. The large gathering at the Birla Auditorium where the function was held heard the supporters of Vasundhara Raje demanding that she should be projected as the Chief Minister’s face.

This irked Nadda, who during his address to pay tribute to Sunder Singh Bhandari said that BJP believes that coming to power is only a passport to serve the people and not a platform for individual achievements. He bluntly told the large gathering that nobody would be allowed to seek individual power or chair and the party’s cadre should work in the best interest of the party, rather than looking for individual glories.

He cited the famous lines of Bhandari, who would often narrate that the formula of “sitting is getting” does not always work. He explained that individual aspirations have no place in BJP.

BJP’s general secretary Arun Singh categorically stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party’s symbol lotus will be the face of the party not only in Rajasthan but in each of the 12 states where the Assembly elections are due before 2024 when the Lok Sabha elections will take place. The BJP along with its alliance partners is ruling in 18 states and several Union territories, while Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh are ruled by the Congress.

Vinod Tawde, the BJP’s special election coordinator said nobody will be projected as the CM face in Rajasthan.

“We will add the engine to chug the party if the need is felt,” said Tawde.

National vice president Raman Singh also said no individual would be projected as the Chief Minister’s face and the party would go to the poll projecting Modi and the success of the NDA government.

The three-day executive meeting spent a lot of time in drawing up plans to regain power in Rajasthan. Though the national executive was convened to discuss the election strategies for the 12 states which would go to poll, but the ended up spending a lot of time on Rajasthan. The two states-Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh would go for the Assembly poll this year, but the national executive did not spend much time in discussing special strategies for these two states knowing it well that the BJP suffered a jolt in the bye-elections for the Vidhan Sabha and a by-election for the Lok Sabha where the party lost to Congress.

The BJP national executive was aware of the fact that the Ashok Gehlot government in recent months gained tremendous popularity of the people with the successful launch of various welfare schemes, particularly the health scheme for all the citizens.

The party depended largely on the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and no other face was projected. The party’s national executive was addressed by Modi where he asked the party to prepare a development plan and fix goals for 25 years thus hinting that the BJP would remain in power for the next 25 years.

This statement of the Prime Minister was criticised by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Calling it the arrogance of the Prime Minister Gehlot said “ In a democracy, no one can predict the future. What will be the mood of the public, nobody knows. The people will give a fitting reply to this arrogance of the Prime Minister when the time comes”. Gehlot pointed out that the BJP organised the meeting of its national executive immediately after the successful Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir by the Congress in Udaipur. This shows that the BJP has started fearing the Congress.