Amid suspense over the BJP's chief ministerial pick for Rajasthan, senior party leader and former CM Vasundhara Raje arrived in New Delhi Wednesday night. Her visit comes amid reports that the BJP is scheduled to hold a crucial meeting in Delhi on Thursday to finalise the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
However, Raje claimed that the visit was personal. "I have come to Delhi to see my daughter-in-law," Vasundhara Raje told reporters outside the airport.
Meanwhile, sources in the Raje camp said she would be meeting the party leaders on Thursday. The former chief minister is still one of the front runners for the post, despite her rift with the national leadership.
After the BJP stormed to victory in Rajasthan, over 60 of the newly elected BJP MLAs met Raje at her Jaipur residence on Monday and Tuesday. While many of the MLAs termed the visit a courtesy meeting, some of them hinted that Raje is a suitable face for the next chief minister because of her work in the previous two tenures.
"BJP has returned to power in Rajasthan only because of the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vasundhara Raje," said Nasirabad MLA Ramswaroop Lamba.
Asked whether the BJP MLAs will support Raje for the CM's post, he said the legislators are with her.
Malviya Nagar MLA Kalicharan Saraf said the party's top leadership will decide who will be the chief minister and added that Raje is acceptable by all legislators.
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 and other MLAs met Raje.
However, the BJP's in-charge for Rajasthan Arun Singh said the decision of the party's parliamentary board about the chief minister's post will be acceptable to all. The Chief Minister will be decided by the party's parliamentary board and before that, a BJP legislature party meeting will be called. However, the party has not yet made any announcement regarding the legislature party meeting.
