Yatra rift ignites full-scale war in Rajasthan BJP

Jaipur: The rift within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan has intensified. A day after Vasundhara Raje threatened to quit the party over a proposed yatra by Gulab Chand Kataria, a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh-backed (RSS) leader, over 40 of her loyalists and BJP MLAs submitted their resignations today. 

Though Mr Kataria called off his 28-day-long Lok Jagran Yatra yesterday, the Raje camp seems to be in no mood to relent. Ms Raje's home in Jaipur saw hectic political parleys today as her loyalists kept streaming in, raising slogans and resigning from their posts. They now want the Party High Command to declare Ms Raje as the BJP's chief ministerial choice - a full 18 months before the Rajasthan elections.

"We don't know what Nitin Gadkari has said, for us the only leader is Vasundhara Raje," said Rohitash Sharma, a BJP MLA from Alwar.

"The top leaders of the party should listen to party workers in Rajasthan and announce openly that Vasundhara will lead the party in the next elections and become the next chief minister in Rajasthan," said Bhawani Singh Rajawat, a BJP MLA from Kota.

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But while her loyalists are adopting strident tones, Ms Raje herself is now shying away from openly escalating the rift in the party. Ms Raje, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, said, "It's an internal family matter for us. We will sort it out within our party." That's something that the BJP, too, echoed. "There may be some differences of perception but when she has said herself that it is an internal matter of the party, then we should treat it like that," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Mr Kataria, the Home Minister of Rajasthan in the former Raje government, is considered the BJP's strongman in the Mewar region of south Rajasthan, but the Raje faction sees the yatra as a challenge to her supremacy, and is opposing it. They allege the yatra was announced unilaterally.

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Meanwhile, though Mr Kataria has called off his yatra, he claims that to stop his yatra, Ms Raje has flouted the Party President's decision.

"When the National President of the party spoke on telephone to all our leaders at the core committee meeting and said my yatra should begin from May 9, Vasundhara Raje suddenly got upset with the decision," said Mr Kataria, who is a senior BJP MLA from Udaipur.

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The RSS faction is in no mood to tolerate any concessions to the Raje camp, which is in the same rebellious mood as they displayed against former BJP President Rajnath Singh, when he asked Ms Raje to resign from her post as Leader of Opposition three years ago.

With both factions in an uncompromising mood, dousing this fire won't be easy for the BJP high command.