Vasundhara Raje reaches Delhi amid Rajasthan CM suspense, says: ‘Came to see daughter-in-law’
While Revanth Reddy is all set to take oath as the Congress chief minister of Telangana on Thursday, the BJP is yet to announce the chief ministers for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The party is scheduled to hold a crucial meeting today in Delhi in which the names might be finalised. According to reports, the party wants to pick fresh chief minister faces. Former Rajasthan chief minister and one of the frontrunners for the CM post Vasundhara Raje reached Delhi on Wednesday night but dodged any question on the meeting or the CM pick. “I have come to Delhi to see my daughter-in-law,” Vasundhara Raje said outside the airport.
On Wednesday, BJP MPs who contested in the assembly elections resigned from Parliament and met PM Modi. Among them were Narendra Tomar, Prahlad Patel, Riti Patha, Rakesh Singh and Uday Pratap Singh from Madhya Pradesh and Rajyavardhan Rathore, Kirodi Lal Meena and Diya Kumari from Rajasthan. Mahant Balaknath was also an MP before he was fielded in the Rajasthan election.
Vasundhara Raje is a two-time chief minister and holds the record of being the first and the only chief minister of Rajasthan. Revered as Raani among her supporters, Vasundhara Raje is eyeing the third term after the BJP swept the election with 115 seats defeating the incumbent Congress that managed to secure 69 seats.
After the results were announced, several BJP MLAs went to Raje’s residence for a courtesy visit. It was not a show of strength, the MLAs clarified and said though the public wants Vasundhara Raje to be the chief minister, the top leadership will decide the CM pick.
40-year-old Mahant Balaknath’s name as the CM probably has emerged in the last few days. Like Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Balaknath is from the Nath community. An MP from Alwar, Balaknath took sanayasa at the age of 6.
Two days after the results, Karni Sena national president Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi was murdered at his resident in Jaipur following which protests broke out at various parts of the state as Karni Sena called for a statewide bandh on Wednesday.