'Helpless' BJP waits for Raje to recover

NEW DELHI
: A week’s “sick” leave is looking like a case of AWOL now. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje came to Delhi on August 30
for a “final” round of discussions with senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu with regard to her resignation as leader of Opposition in the state Assembly.

On September 1, Naidu waited for Raje to turn up but to his chagrin, received word that she had taken ill and her son, Jhalawar MP Dushyant Singh, would be coming along. Singh reported his mother was down with viral fever. Left with few options, Naidu and Singh had lunch and the party said it would wait for Raje to get better.

But now, almost a fortnight later, there is no word of what has transpired. Such is the disarray in the BJP central leadership that no one is prepared to say when Raje will be asked to accept the decision of the BJP core committee, reached in mid-August, that the former CM should be asked to step down as leader of Opposition. On her part, the leader is keeping a low profile while sources close to her briefly said she was still unwell.

BJP president Rajnath Singh had announced that there was “no timeframe” being set for her to announce resignation, but he had been keen to ensure that Raje quit her post. But Raje’s arrival in Delhi coincided with the RSS intervening in BJP matters in an effort to map out a change of guard. With the leadership distracted, the former CM seems to have calculated that she should avoid handing over her resignation.

Now Rajnath seems to be facing a dilemma. After the core group decision, he had sought to assert his authority and get Raje to quit. But other central leaders had become lukewarm to the idea with BJP veteran L K Advani seen to be not averse to Raje continuing.

The gamble may well have worked. When asked, party leaders ducked the question and insisted that they would wait till Raje recovers. The helplessness of the party leadership is clear as it is believed to have tried to get messages across to Raje through her “personal” friends in the party over the last one month.
Source:: timesofindia