As the wait for a new chief minister continues in Rajasthan, several newly-elected BJP MLAs paid former chief minister and senior BJP leader Vasundhara Raje a visit at her residence in Jaipur on Monday. The 25 MLAs who visited Raje called it a 'courtesy meeting.'
Raje is said to be among the frontrunners for the CM's post along with Diya Kumari, Mahant Balaknath, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and party chief C P Joshi. The BJP, which returned to power bagging 115 seats, did not name its CM candidate in the elections.
The MLAs said they would support Raje if the party leadership chose her for the post in the state. Nasirabad MLA Ramswaroop Lamba said that people have seen the works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Raje and that the decision regarding the CM will be taken by the party's parliamentary board. "BJP has returned to power in Rajasthan only because of the work done by PM Modi and Vasundhara Raje, Lamba said, adding that the legislators are with her.
Bahadur Singh Koli is another MLA who openly supports Raje. "The people want Vasundhara ji (Vasundhara Raje) to be the CM and she should become the CM. In the party meeting, we will say that she should be the CM again," Koli told reporters.
In Jaipur, the MLAs who visited Raje's residence included Kalicharan Saraf, Babu Singh Rathore, Prem Chand Bairwa, Govind Ranipuria, Kalulal Meena, KK Vishnoi, Pratap Singh Singhvi, Gopichand Meena, Bahadur Singh Koli, Shankar Singh Rawat, Manju Baghmar, Vijay Singh Chaudhary, Pushpendra Singh and Shatrughan Gautam.
Raje, who is the national vice president of BJP, has been the chief minister of Rajasthan twice from 2003 to 2008 and 2013 to 2018. She was mostly sidelined following her differences with RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, Raje still has a lot of clout in the party and the national leadership had to project a united front ahead of the elections.
Meanwhile, BJP state in-charge Arun Singh and state unit president CP Joshi are in Delhi for a meeting with the party high command. They met party president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Shekhawat and Balaknath are also in Delhi to attend the Parliament session.
