Vasundhara Raje likely to lead BJP into 2023 Rajasthan Assembly poll battle

New Delhi: The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party has apparently given another opportunity to the former Chief Minister and senior leader Vasundhara Raje to lead the party into battle ahead of the 2023 state Assembly polls.

Sources stated that Vasundhara has been asked by BJP’s top leadership to get her act together and go on the offensive against the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan. With Assembly polls scheduled for next year, the party hopes to regain control of the important state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The sentiment of the top leadership was apparently conveyed to Vasundhara at the recently concluded BJP’s National Executive meet held in Hyderabad, sources said.

The party feels that the Gehlot government, which is already on the back foot over the deteriorating law and order situation and its alleged minority appeasement stance, could be pushed into a corner through strong and relentless pressure on these issues. Interestingly, Rajasthan is the last big state that is governed by Congress.  

Though the love-hate relationship between the top leadership of the party and Vasundhara has been far too apparent over the past several years, she is being backed as the saffron unit wants to regain control of the crucial border state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.      

Earlier, the BJP leadership was uphappy with the performance of Vasundhara after the saffron unit was only able to secure 75 seats in the 200 members in the 2018 Assembly polls. Despite losing the state polls, the very next year the BJP-RLP alliance had secured all 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, completely reversing the Assembly polls outcome.

However, over the past several years Vasundhara has been working behind the scenes to continue to maintain her hold over the state organisation of the BJP.

State BJP leaders asked to avoid factionalism, stand united to regain power

The top leadership of the BJP has also instructed the state leadership to work as a united front and avoid factionalism to regain power in the crucial border state, sources stated. 

The messaging was clear as Union Home Minister and former BJP chief Amit Shah also held discussions with top state BJP leadership and discussed strategy with BJP general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Arun Singh, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, state BJP president Satish Poonia and leader of opposition Gulab Chand Kataria during his visit to Jaipur over the weekend.

Interestingly, after securing the backing of the party’s central leadership, Vasundhara has started to become more visible in public life, also increasing her intensity of attack on the state Congress government. The former chief minister last week visited the Udaipur home of the slain tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, and assured all possible help to the family.

She also recently visited Jodhpur, the home turf of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and launched a scathing attack on him over the deteriorating law and order in Rajasthan. The visit is being seen as a straight challenge to the incumbent chief minister and also to BJP’s Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat who is the MP from the seat.

Vasundhara has served as the chief minister of the state twice and leader of opposition in the Rajasthan assembly between 2009-2013.