NEW DELHI: With a large number of BJP's Rajasthan MLAs reaching the national capital on Saturday to secure their nominations by reaching out to senior party leaders and Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) functionaries, the state chief minister Vasundhara Raje is learnt to have come up with a new formula in her list of 140 candidates in which she has proposed to change constituencies of about a dozen sitting legislators.
Caught in a battle of wits with the BJP chief Amit Shah, Raje has seemingly pitched for axing not more than 30 MLAs out of the total 163 in the state screening meeting held at the residence of the Union Minister and state election in-charge Prakash Javdekar on Saturday.
The BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) is scheduled to meet Sunday evening to consider the list of candidates for Rajasthan which goes to polls on December 7 even while the last date of filing nominations is November 19.
The BJP CEC had earlier not been able to take up the list of Rajasthan on account of Shah and Raje reportedly not arriving at a consensus on the issue of axing a large number of sitting MLAs in the state.
"Following up the direction of the BJP chief to come out with a fresh list of candidates in tune with the ground assessment report, the chief minister has submitted a list 140 nominees out of the total 200 seats in the state. She has favoured changing constituencies of the sitting legislators against whom there are adverse reports which had been prepared on the basis of the feedback of the party workers. She's ready to drop 30 sitting legislators," said a senior BJP functionary, who is privy to the parleys during the screening committee meeting.
With the RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat in the national capital, scores of BJP MLAs are camping in New Delhi to reach out to influential functionaries at Jhandewalan, headquarters of the umbrella saffron outfit. The chief minister along with state ministers is also likely to meet the BJP chief later in the evening to discuss the fresh list of candidates.
However, the BJP chief is learnt to have prepared a separate list of candidates for the state by enlisting the services of Union Minister of state Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, sources said. Sources said that the chief minister is bracing to protect the nominations of at least 70 of the sitting legislators who are known to be her staunch supporters in the state politics.