Vasundhra Raje gets active in Rajasthan politics

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, March 28

Aiming for the spotlight ahead of state elections next year, former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje appears to be getting active in state politics following her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.

Taking to the social media, Raje today took on Congress’s Ashok Gehlot-led government on issues like women security and unemployment. Slamming the Congress government over its claims on jobs and women safety, she said Rajasthan had reached “number one position” on both— crime against women and unemployment.

Blaming it on “lack of transparency and sanctity in state recruitment institutions, cancellation of results, paper leaks, corruption and insensitivity of the Congress government,” she said “while the unemployment rate in the country is eight per cent, in Rajasthan it is 30 per cent”, quoting a report.

Her meeting with PM Modi and senior central leaders has stoked speculations of BJP’s plans and election campaign for the desert state, creating a buzz in a divided state unit while putting her back in the spotlight.

Currently the national vice president, Raje, who was not a part of the election campaign in the five states that recently polled, was also spotted during the swearing-in ceremonies of Pushkar Singh Dhami and Yogi Adityanath.

State leaders, who point to her absence at events organised by the state unit and “open rift” with state president Satish Poonia, saw her presence at party events as an attempt to re-establish herself as the BJP face in Rajasthan.

Last year, she also organised a much-talked-about religious tour and visited Jodhpur to offer condolences to another competitor for the top job in Rajasthan, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, after his mother passed away.

After losing the 2018 state elections, Raje was perceived as sidelined by the central leadership amid accusations of her “running a parallel system, concentrating on herself rather than the party”.