Former Chief Minister and Rajasthan BJP president Vasundhara Raje on Monday embarked on second leg of her Suraj Sankalp Yatra in this Hadauti region, once bastion of the BJP, to cover party’s losses inflicted to it during the last Assembly elections.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan flagged of the Yatra after addressing a huge gathering at Dussehra Ground. Several leaders of the party from the State attended the ceremony. Adjoining to the State, politics of Madhya Pradesh had always influenced the politics of Hadauti region of Rajasthan.
Making a scathing attack on Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his Government, Raje said that during the previous BJP Government, Rajasthan had come out from the list of BIMARU States but as the present Government had failed to carry out the development work, the State is returning back to the same
situation.
Speaking on the occasion, Chouhan said Raje family had close links with MP and her mother had played a significant role in shaping up the party in the State as well as at the national level. He said the way people are responding to the Raje’s yatra, it was almost certain that the BJP would return to power in the coming Assembly elections.
During her six-day long Yatra, Raje would address over three dozen meetings, according to Kalicharan Saraf, state BJP general secretary and in-charge of this second leg of the yatra.
Before starting second leg of her Yatra on Sunday, Raje got a shot in the arm when a former senior Congress Jat leader Hari Singh announced to join the BJP. Raje was honoured at a meeting to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of Jat Chhatravas organised by Hari Singh in Jaipur.
Among others, former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh attended the meeting. Natwar said Raje would not only become the next Chief Minister of the State, but she had the charisma to become Prime Minister of the country in the future.
Former MP Hari Singh, who was vice president of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, was been expelled from the party for publicly criticising Gehlot. Only in last week, he had announced that now he would play the role of Chanakya to bring back Raje as Chief Minister of the State.
With the joining of the BJP by the Jat stalwart leader, Jat politics of the State is set to take a new turn. Jat leaders in western Rajasthan are not happy with Gehlot Government as they feel that he was behind jailing senior Congress leader Mahipal Maderna, an accused in Bhanwari Devi murder case.
Though leader like Narayan Singh, former PCC president, are with Gehlot, stalwart Jat leader of the party Sheeshram Ola, former Union Minister is said have some reservation about him. RPCC president Chandrabhan, a protégé of Gehlot, also belong to this region, but he has not much impact on the Jat politics of the region. With the joining of BJP by Hari Singh and his followers, party leadership is confident to regain its lost ground from where it had won two lok Sabha seats in 2004 elections.