Senior BJP leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday ruled out the talk of her retirement from active politics and said she was looking forward to the next five years of working in the political arena.
Ms. Raje was speaking after filing her nomination papers from Jhalrapatan Assembly seat, from where she has been elected four times to the Assembly since 2003.
During her election campaign in Jhalawar district on Friday, the BJP leader had said that she felt she could retire as her son Dushyant Singh, the Jhalawar-Baran MP, had learnt the ropes and was taking good care of his Lok Sabha constituency. She praised the people of the region for setting her son on a path where he had become responsible and was performing well.
Ms. Raje told presspersons after filing the nomination that she had made the remarks in the context of praising her son and it was a matter “between the family”. “If I said something [yesterday], it was a mother’s pride, along with the family. We all complimented the son of the family,” the veteran BJP leader said, making it clear that she was not going anywhere and retirement was nowhere in her agenda.
The former Chief Minister’s remarks have come during the Assembly election campaign at a time when the BJP has refrained from projecting her as the Chief Ministerial face, unlike the earlier elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently announced at one of his rallies in the State that the party’s “face” this time would be its symbol, the lotus.
However, several of Ms. Raje’s loyalists have found place in the BJP’s lists of candidates, repudiating the conjectures that she was being sidelined in the party. The senior party leaders have affirmed that the election was being fought under a collective leadership.
Ms. Raje said she was looking forward to the next five years of working. “I have just filed my nomination. Jhalawar is my family... Don’t entertain any thoughts of my retirement anytime soon,” she said.
Dushyant Singh, 50, is the only son of Ms. Raje, who was married to Hemant Singh of the erstwhile royal family of Dholpur. He is a four-time MP from Jhalawar-Baran and had won his first Lok Sabha election in 2004.
Ms. Raje offered prayers at Balaji temple in Radi before filing her nomination papers. She was accompanied by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, BJP district unit general secretary Narendra Tomar and Mr. Dushyant Singh when she handed over the papers to the Returning Officer.
