Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, on Republic Day, met former chief minister Vasundhara Raje at her residence. The meeting has a political significance keeping in view the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Raje, who kept herself away from government and the party after the oath ceremony, was seen suddenly receiving prime minister Narendra Modi at the airport on Thursday. Modi had come to Jaipur to have a road show with French president Emmanuel Macron.
Bhajan Lal Sharma's call on meeting with Raje a day after her appearance at the airport to receive Modi, rings bell in the political sphere. Political analyst are calling it a step towards mending ways with Vasundhara Raje, who is said to be not happy with the current political set up in Rajasthan.
“Some message must have been passed on to Bhajan Lal regarding political relationship with Vasundhara Raje. The chief minister is just acting on those lines,” said a BJP leader.
The BJP so far has not given any weightage to Vasundhara Raje or her supporters. Even in assembly her seating arrangement is being questioned by the opposition. The state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara has ridiculed decision of BJP to keep two times chief minister Vasundhara Raje's seat near the independents and opposition.
“How can you ignore and insult such a senior leader (Raje) of your party?, Dotasara had questioned.
The government has been put in trouble a couple of times in assembly. Congress MLAs have been proved stronger than BJP so far. Experienced MLAs close to Vasundhara Raje are not coming to the rescue of government.
“They are playing neutral so far. It seems without active support of Vasundhara Raje and her supporting MLAs, the government will have tough time dealing with experienced Congress MLAs in the assembly,” said Prakash Bhandari, senior journalist and political analyst.
Ram Kumar Kaushik is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience across mediums. The architect of this news website, he is also a consultant with several media groups. He was formerly the group managing editor of ITV Network (NewsX, India News and The Sunday Guardian) and its digital products.
