JAIPUR: After a wait of nearly two months, the BJP has found a new leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan. Senior MLA from the Rajput community, Rajendra Rathore, was appointed the LOP on Sunday after a meeting of the party’s newly appointed state president CP Joshi, party officials and MLAs at the BJP headquarters in Jaipur.
Sources said this is the second time in two weeks that former CM Vasundhara Raje has been ignored for an important position by the BJP leadership. On February 12, the previous leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Gulabchand Kataria, was appointed the Governor of Assam. Since then, that post was lying vacant.
The former state BJP chief and arch-rival of Raje, Satish Poonia was declared deputy leader of the Opposition. A thrilled Rajendra Rathore described himself as a grassroots worker. “A new responsibility has been assigned to me and I will try to live up to expectations,” he said. During the meeting on Sunday, senior party leaders including Raje and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat were present.
Earlier, during the Legislature Party meeting, former Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal who was also in the LOP race left the meeting in a huff. However, after persuasion by senior leaders, he returned. Later, supporters of Rajendra Rathore who came from Churu raised slogans at the state BJP office. In the evening a meeting of the BJP Rajasthan Core Committee took place to discuss the strategy for the state elections due in December this year. Rajasthan BJP in-charge Arun Singh and co-in-charge Vijaya Rahatkar were also present in the meeting.
On Friday night, the party’s newly appointed state president CP Joshi had tweeted that Rathore was being appointed the LoP. However, the tweet was deleted shortly.