Protests marred by chants for & against Meena, Poonia

Jaipur: Infighting in the state BJP surfaced in the middle of a protest over the demands by the Pulwama terror attack martyrs’ widows on Saturday when MP Kirori Lal Meena’s supporters raised slogans against state BJP chief Satish Poonia.The Rajya Sabha MP’s supporters accused Poonia of not doing enough for their leader (Meena). Infuriated by the development, many BJP workers raised pro-Poonia slogans during the protest. Senior leaders rushed in for damage control and stopped the party workers from raising slogans against the two leaders.As the protest was in progress, a group of youngsters was heard raising slogans like ‘Satish Poonia hai hai’ (Go down, Satish Poonia) and ‘Rajasthan ka ek hi laal: Kirori Lal’ (Kirori Lal is the only tiger of Rajasthan). Taken aback by the move, another group of party workers was heard retorting with chants of ‘Satish Poonia zindabad (Hail Satish Poonia).“We are really angry over the way Poonia and the state BJP maintained a distance from the campaign of delivering justice to the three martyrs’ widows initiated by Meena 12 days ago. The party should have extended its support to Meena on day 1, but they are seen now when the issue has hogged the national limelight,” said a supporter of Meena’s.Embarrassed over the sloganeering, BJP has started identifying the youths who had raised the slogans. The party will then determine whether they were members of BJP or only the supporters of Meena’s, said sources.