Vasundhara Raje celebrates birthday in Churu; BJP youth wing stages protest in Jaipur

On the same day, the BJP’s youth wing staged a huge protest demonstration on exam paper leaks and unemployment in Jaipur

The grand birthday celebration of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at Salasar Balaji Dham in Churu district on Saturday, turned out to be an occasion for the BJP leaders to attack the Congress government in the State. On the same day, the BJP’s youth wing staged a huge protest demonstration on exam paper leaks and unemployment in Jaipur.

Accompanied by her son, Jhalawar-Baran MP Dushyant Singh, Ms. Raje offered prayers at the Balaji temple and later addressed a public meeting at the popular pilgrim centre. Ms. Raje said the Congress government had failed on all fronts and the State was “moving backwards” because of the power tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s demonstration near the CM’s residence in Jaipur was controlled by the police with a mild lathi-charge and the use of water cannon to disperse the protesters. BJP State president Satish Poonia, who led the protest, had asked all the party MLAs to remain present at the demonstration.

The two high-profile events of the Opposition BJP at different places on the same day were seen in the political circles here as a fight for supremacy between the two rival factions ahead of the State Assembly election, due in December this year. Mr. Poonia has been opposing any move to project Ms. Raje as the chief ministerial face during the election campaign.

BJP national general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Arun Singh tried to do a balancing act by attending both the events. Mr. Singh told reporters in Salasar that there was “no infighting” in the party’s State unit and both the events had witnessed a huge turnout of the people who were fed up with the “wrong policies and ineffective governance” of the Congress.

Despite several contenders for the CM’s post coming up in the party, the BJP has so far maintained that it would fight the 2023 Assembly polls without projecting any face. Ms. Raje’s supporters tried to use the birthday celebration as a show of strength, while conveying to the Central leadership that the former CM, who had commanded a massive victory in 2003 and 2013, had a mass following and was the most popular leader.

A large number of BJP leaders considered close to Ms. Raje attended the birthday bash. They included Churu MP Rahul Kaswan and Sriganganagar MP Nihal Chand, MLAs Pratap Singh Singhvi, Anita Bhadel and Deepti Maheshwari, former MLAs Kalicharan Saraf, Ashok Parnami, Rajpal Shekhawat and Yunus Khan and former Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal.