JAIPUR: The followers of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje will celebrate her birthday on March 8 in a grand style which is being seen as a major show of strength among the political circles.
Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the event is also being construed as the launch of poll preparations by the BJP’s Raje camp. Rajasthan is going to the polls next year.
In the midst of preparation for birthday celebrations, two audio clips have gone viral on social media in which the party’s infighting has come to the fore yet again. BJP’s Bundi district president Chitarmal Rana and local MLA Ashok Dogra are reportedly heard asking a local worker to distance from Raje’s Dev Darshan Yatra as it is not a party programme.
Nevertheless, former ministers Babulal Verma, Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, Yunus Khan, Bhavani Singh Rajawat, former state president Ashok Parnami and former MLA Prahlad Gunjal are among the senior leaders preparing to celebrate the event at Keshavarai temple in Keshavraipatan, Bundi as part of the Dev Darshan Yatra. The district BJP unit, however, has distanced itself from the programme.
According to BJP insiders, the target of gathering a crowd of one lakh people was set to Raje supporters for the birthday programme.
All participating MLAs, former MLAs, close leaders were asked to mobilise a crowd of at least 2,000-3,000 people.
In the Rajasthan political circles, the turf fight between Raje and the party’s state president Satish Poonia, who heads the RSS faction, is a well-known fact.
The Raje camp claims that the BJP can come to power only if the next election is fought under the leadership of Raje.