JAIPUR: Former CM Vasundhara Raje is missing from the new poster put outside the BJP state headquarters here giving further rise to speculations that power struggle continues in the brass of the saffron party in the state.
Old banners had Raje along with BJP state president Satish Poonia, leader of opposition Gulabchand Kataria, deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore on one side while PM Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah on the other.
The posters were replaced on April 6.
BJP office bearers have downplayed the issue by saying the posters were changed since Karni Sena activists while protesting the comments of Kataria on Maharana Pratap in an election rally in Rajsamand in April had defaced his picture.
“It was very embarrassing for a party to continue with the defaced poster,” said a BJP functionary while explaining the reason for the same.
Sources told TOI that the poster was meant to be changed long ago but the pandemic and announcement of bypolls prevented the leadership to place new ones fearing controversy.
“Timings in politics is very important.
It would have caused unnecessary controversy had a photo of Raje was dropped during the polls.
It is comparatively safer at the moment to change it as it is not clashing with any political event,” said a BJP leader who was aware of the development.
Another poster has two images—Deendayal Upadhyay and SP Mukherjee, as a tribute to the party’s stalwarts, leaving no space for any additional poster.
Raje’s two independent initiatives — a helpline on Twitter ‘Office of Vasundhara Raje’ helping people in need since April 2021 and ‘Vasundhara Jan Rasoi’ providing free food to the poor — have caught the eyeballs of the state and central leadership.
“Both the initiatives are Raje centric at a time when the entire BJP was doing relief work as one unit is to remind of her popularity in the state,” said BJP leader.
Around her initiatives, her loyalists continue to project her as a leader of the masses.
On Tuesday, former minister in Raje’s government Rohitashva Sharma in Alwar said out of 10 people, nine see Raje as the CM.