In the last five years, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has been making news for different reasons.
She hit the headlines for her posters being removed from the party office, for her absence from the BJP’s rallies and protests and finally for her return in party posters, functions and also for being sidelined by her own party leaders.
However, despite being ignored in several functions, Raje managed to get around 40+ tickets for her followers in the just-concluded Assembly election in Rajasthan, which indicates that “madam still cannot be ignored.”
Now that the heat and dust of the elections is over, questions are being asked in the Congress and the BJP camps alike as to “what will madam get post election and where will she go.”
While campaigning for her workers at different locations last week not only did Raje draw huge crowds but also attacked the Gehlot Government for the high debt burden of the state due to the different policies being launched by the Chief Minister.
“Every child in Rajasthan will be born with a debt of about Rs 70, 000 on its head. The state has incurred the highest debt during Gehlot's time. This loan was taken by the government for the development of the Congress. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot spends money from the government's treasury not on the people of the state but on his MLAs. When the Congress MLAs tried to topple the government, a huge amount of money was spent in barricading the MLAs for months. The entire stay was in 5-Star hotels. This money belonged to the public. Today investors are running away from Rajasthan because it has the highest power tariff in the country, ” she had thundered at one of the election rallies.
Raje had also attacked the Congress government over its manifesto and said that it doesn’t speak the truth.
She had said, “The Congress promised to provide 4 lakh government jobs, when only 2.5 lakh posts are vacant. How will they provide 4 lakh jobs? Gehlot is saying that he gave jobs to 3 lakh youth. Forget about 3 lakh, he could not even give government jobs to 20, 000. In five years, 1.37 lakh government recruitments were done. Out of which 1.20 lakh were recruited during the time of the BJP.”
In fact, in the run-up to the election on November 25, she had been attacking the Gehlot Government over issues likes ERCP, farm loan waivers and so on.
“This clearly shows that she has not lost hope of becoming the Chief Minister for the third time. Not only did she draw huge crowds during the campaigning, she also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in all her gatherings and criticized the work done by Gehlot. This shows that she wants to be in the good books of senior leaders. And it also shows that she herself wants to be in the race for the CM’s job, ” said a party worker.
However, the central leadership has taken the command in its hands and is moving ahead as per its strategies. For now, Raje seems to be sidelined and hence comes the big question: What will be her next move?
“Raje, as of now, is very much in the CM’s race. She has proven many times that she can’t be ruled out no matter what the situation, ” said another party worker.
Meanwhile a veteran party worker said, “The former CM was offered constitutional positions in different states but she rejected those. Now, it’s evident that the party leadership wants to develop a young leadership. She will either get the chance of becoming the governor of a state or get a similar position. As of now, she still has five years’ time and hence can also be given a chance in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.”
Meanwhile, Narayan Panchariya, who was heading the election management committee in Rajasthan for the recent Assembly polls, told IANS, “Vasundhara has been a senior leader of our party. She has been handling all our responsibilities well. She was in Jharkhand recently where she led from the front and worked hard in Rajasthan too.”
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told IANS, “It’s a known fact that the BJP has been doing experiments. It is our party leadership which will decide who will get what task. The top leadership has dominance and prominence. In the Congress, Gehlot can stay the CM after challenging the high command, however, it’s not the same in the BJP. In our party, our leadership is sacrosanct and we all follow what the central leadership says.”
Now, only time will tell what role Raje will get after the results are announced on December 3. Whether she will be in Rajasthan or at the Centre or in any other state, all eyes are on the outcome for the senior and most charismatic leader of the BJP in the state.