JAIPUR: For state BJP leaders, who are openly engaged in the battle for one-upmanship, party national president JP Nadda’s message of ‘united state’s unit’ does not come as a surprise. With the state going to polls next year, the state BJP leaders are busy trying to prove their popularity, which has not gone well with the national leadership.
Sources confirmed that the party high command took notice of the recent activities of its Rajasthan unit which saw the house divided. State BJP chief Satish Poonia’s campaign in protest against REET paper leak found support missing from a top leader and MLAs on the ground.
Even the recent war of words between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat over the national status of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) saw the former taking on Gehlot with bare minimum support from the party.
The most recent is former CM Vasundhara Raje’s visit to riot-hit Karauli, which even the senior leaders were not aware of. Raje did follow the party line in Karauli, but leaders tried to paint the visit as personal.
The party, however, put up a united front when Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morch national president Tejasvi Surya and Poonia were prevented from entering Karauli. At that time, almost all leaders criticised the state government on social media. “Such individual or group-centric acts send a very divisive message among party workers. It has been seen that party workers have started aligning with one of many power centres according to their interests,” said a source who was aware of the development.
Tuesday’s Delhi meeting was called on a very short notice by the central party leaders considering that barely 20 months are left before the assembly polls. During the meeting, Nadda asked the party leaders to collectively take on the critics of PM Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and RSS repeatedly by Gehlot.
Nadda’s message to stand collectively on every issue and campaign gives an end to speculations that the party will declare any CM face before the polls.
“Shah and Nadda are likely to visit the state soon to give party workers a strong message of a united house and to the state leaders that they are being watched by Delhi,” added a source.
