Rajnath's elevation worsens R'than infighting

The election of Rajnath Singh to the post of BJP national president may spring surprises in the state unit of BJP. The sudden turnaround in the fortune of Rajnath Singh is likely to cause heartburn in the Raje camp while the anti-Raje camp has a reason to rejoice.

Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje had a running battle with Singh during his last stint as BJP president. Raje, who was told to resign as moral responsibility for the electoral setback in the last Assembly and parliamentary elections, had refused to toe the party line and continued onto the post for one-and-a-half years.

However, after the change of guard at Delhi, Raje managed to return as Assembly opposition leader .

Singh, who is moored in the strong RSS ideology, may not follow Raje’s arm-twisting tactics. An anti-Raje leader, on condition of anonymity says that Singh, unlike Gadkari, carries some weight in the party and cannot be taken for a ride. “We hope the party will not completely surrender to the whims of Raje. During Rajnath Singh’s last tenure, he tried to strike a balance between the two factions and we hope that he will continue the same this time.”

The party has to decide on state party chief as current  president Dr Arun Chaturvedi’s term ended in December. The  party initially was not in favour of elections of a new president considering the upcoming Assembly election but Raje camp insisted on replacing Chaturvedi with a man of her choice or she be made the  president. This triggered an intense factional fight.

 The party in charge of Rajasthan Kaptain Singh Solanki had several rounds of negotiations with the leaders of both the camps and Arun Jaitley also summoned leaders from both the factions to Delhi to sort out the leadership issue.