It seems that all is not well in Bharatiya Janta Party in Rajasthan. Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Tuesday skipped the recent swearing-in ceremony of newly-appointed state president, Satish Poonia, suggesting a rift within the party.
Poonia officially took charge at a grand programme organised at the BJP state headquarters in Jaipur on Tuesday. The program was attended by a galaxy of political stalwarts, including union ministers Prakash Javadekar, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Kailash Choudhary, BJP vice-president Om Mathur, leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria, MP Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore and Baba Balaknath and hundreds of party workers and legislators.
However, Raje's absence quickly became a talking point among party workers, with some calling it the end of the Raje era while others hoped for her return.
The former chief minister sent a congratulatory letter to Poonia, in which she expressed her inability to attend the programme due to Vijayadashami ceremonies in Dholpur. "You are young, hardworking and honest worker and hence I am confident that you shall come to fulfil expectations of the organisation. I was keen to attend the programme but due to Navratri, I failed to mark my presence."
Rumours of a rift were further fuelled, when Poonia excluded Raje's name from the list of leaders he thanked in his speech.
After taking the charge, the first assignment for 55-year-old Poonia, will be polls to the two Assembly seats - Khinvsar and Nagaur. Panchayat and local body elections will follow soon after that. Both the seats where by-polls are scheduled are dominated by Jats.
Poonia officially assumed office a month after his name was announced by BJP working president J P Nadda. The post of BJP state president was lying vacant since the death of Madanlal Saini in June this year.
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