More Raje loyalists offer to quit, BJP plays down crisis

JAIPUR: While resignations of Vasundhara Raje loyalists continued to flow in on Sunday, the BJP did its best to downplay the brewing crisis in its state unit.
Senior party leaders, including Raje, claimed that the recent political drama was the party’s “internal matter”; shying away from explaining why an “internal matter” had led to 58 legislators resign en masse, including two Independents.
In a brief interaction with the media, in which she refused to take any questions, Raje said, “It is an internal matter for the party and will be resolved through discussions.’’ Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, during a media briefing in New Delhi, insisted that the state BJP was not rocked by any crisis as Raje herself had said it was an “internal matter”. The state leadership, however, chose to stay mum on the issue. BJP spokesperson Jyoti Kiran too didn’t give away much and said, “Saturday’s developments should not be projected as a crisis as there is little doubt over her (Raje) being accepted as the party’s CM candidate for next assembly polls.’’
State party president Arun Chaturvedi and Kiran Maheshwari individually met former Rajya Sabha MP Ramdas Agarwal but details of the meetings were not divulged. Raje loyalists also held meeting with former state president Om Prakash Mathur.
Meanwhile, BJP president Nitin Gadkari has called a meeting on Monday which would be attended by state party in-charge Kaptan Singh Solanki, senior leaders Arun Jaitley, Mathur, Kirit Somaiya and Bhupendra Yadav.