Vasundhara Raje, Madan Lal Saini meet Amit Shah in Delhi, changes in Rajasthan BJP on cards

A meeting between Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and newly appointed state BJP chief Madan Lal Saini with the national party president Amit Shah has cleared the way for organisational changes in the state unit ahead of the polls in December this year. Sources said that the meeting took place in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The meeting that lasted for an hour took place at Shah’s Delhi residence, party sources said. The organisational changes are on cards since the appointment of Saini as the party chief in Rajasthan. As DNA had reported, changes to the executive body and replacement of district unit office bearers is being mulled by the party to strengthen the organisation. 

The state unit is already running behind schedule considering the delay in appointment of former BJP president Ashok Parnami’s replacement. 

Besides Raje and Saini, the BJP’s state unit organisational secretary Chandrasekhar and its national joint general secretary (organisation) V Satish were present. This was the first meeting between Raje and Shah after the appointment of the new state BJP chief. Last month, the appointment of Saini to the post of state BJP president was made after several rounds of meetings between Raje and Shah. His appointment is being seen as a balancing act by the party leadership to avoid any political divide between two dominant castes of Jat and Rajput in the state. Earlier, Rajput leader and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who represents Rajasthan’s Jodhpur parliamentary constituency, was tipped to be the state president. Singh was the choice of the party’s high command but there was a difference between Raje and Shah over his selection. Raje wanted her loyalist as the state president. 

After rounds of discussions, the name of relatively low-profile Saini emerged as a consensus candidate. Saini belongs to the Mali caste, the same as Congress general secretary and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot. The ruling BJP is in direct fight with a resurgent Congress in the state, and is facing uphill task of tackling anti-incumbency in the state. 

— With agency inputs