JAIPUR: Rebel Rajasthan BJP leader and a hardcore critic of Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Ghanshyam Tiwari has resigned from the party saying that he will now fight against the "undeclared Emergency" in the state and the country.
A five-time MLA, Tiwari, has been at loggerheads with the Vasundhara Raje dispensation in the state over a number of issues - but mainly over corruption in the Raje government. He has been attacking Raje and the BJP leadership after the party's national disciplinary committee issued show-cause notices to him in 2017.
Alleging that the Rajasthan BJP has become a place for mafias and sycophants, while loyal and qualified people are sidelined, Tiwari has sent his resignation to the party's national president Amit Shah. He claims the BJP will not get good results in the next elections if Raje is not removed: "There is dissatisfaction in the BJP cadre and in the cadre of the ideological family and if this dissatisfaction does not end, they cannot win the next elections. This dissatisfaction is mainly against the chief minister and that is why I say, change this leadership."
Tiwari had, in the past, been the Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan and also a cabinet minister in the BJP government in Vasundhara Raje's last tenure as chief minister from 2003 to 2008. But when Raje became CM again in 2013, she did not give space to Tiwari in her cabinet which greatly annoyed Tiwari. Ever since, Tiwari has claimed that Vasundhara Raje is operating in an autocratic manner. He says that various positions have been filled with outsiders rather than with party cadre, which has left people within the organization disillusioned.
The state BJP leadership had taken note of Ghanshyam Tiwari's rebellious ways but had been reluctant to take any action against him. The fact that Tiwari is no greenhorn, and happens to be a seasoned leader who has won the Assembly elections five times, had clearly compounded the worries of the party.
Tiwari comes from the Brahman community who are traditional voters of the BJP. He will now join the 'Bharat Vahini Party' formed by his son Akhilesh to contest the Assembly polls later this year. A sitting MLA from Sanganer Assembly constituency, Tiwari had won the last Assembly election by the highest margin in Rajasthan, significantly more than the winning of even Vasundhara herself.