New Delhi: Chittorgarh MP C.P. Joshi, who replaced Satish Poonia as the Rajasthan BJP chief on 23 March, is making efforts to steer clear of the mistakes of his predecessor — alienating senior leader and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, and making himself an alternate power centre in a state unit ridden with factionalism and infighting.
“I am an ordinary party worker and there are other leaders senior to me in the BJP. My duty is to bring all leaders on one platform to fight (chief minister) Ashok Gehlot. I have to seek guidance from them to run the party, and I will ensure everybody walks unitedly,” he told ThePrint in an interaction.
According to several BJP leaders, the purpose behind switching state chiefs in an election year was to bring unity in the party unit.
Joshi emphasised the same message in his first address to BJP workers in Jaipur on 27 March. “I am an ordinary party worker and have been given a responsibility, but I need support from you to fulfil that responsibility and bring the BJP to power,” he told the party workers.
He further asked them not to raise slogans in his name, neither paste banners and posters of himself. “If you want to see me survive, don’t raise slogans in my name after today. Raise slogans of Bharat Mata and PM Narendra Modi, and put up hoardings of the PM and the central government’s work,” he urged the workers.
With a truce with Raje on the cards, Joshi visited her residence in Jaipur this Sunday “to seek her guidance”, and also met up with other senior state BJP leaders such as Arun Chaturvedi, Ashok Parnami and Raje loyalist Harishankar Bhabhda.
Elaborating on the challenge before him, Joshi told ThePrint: “In the BJP, individuals don’t work but the organisation works.”
“With guidance from senior colleagues who have tremendous political experience, and with help from lakhs of BJP workers, we will achieve the target of forming a BJP government in Rajasthan.”
BJP leaders ThePrint spoke to emphasised that Joshi was seen as a “neutral face” in the party, unlike Poonia, and “was acceptable to all of the party’s factions in Rajasthan and particularly Raje”.
In an apparent bid to placate the former CM, the BJP Sunday also appointed Raje loyalist and Churu MLA Rajendra Rathore as the Leader of Opposition. Poonia, meanwhile, was made his deputy.
“The party high command has asked newly elected leaders to personally visit Raje to send positive optics and cool tempers,” a BJP leader told ThePrint.
BJP’s Rajasthan in-charge Arun Singh also held separate meetings with Raje over the weekend “to gauge her mind and discuss the campaign for the upcoming elections”.
Raje, in turn, is seen as reciprocating the high command’s positive gestures. She sent trusted aide Yunus Khan to meet Joshi after his appointment, while other leaders from her camp are seen participating in meetings and events involving Joshi over the last three days — something they did not do with Poonia.
“By replacing Satish Poonia and appointing a neutral person as Rajasthan unit president, the party has changed its strategy as it wants to keep Vasundhara Raje in good humour. The party sensed that without taking her on board, it would be tough to win Rajasthan as she is popular and has her own support base,” a BJP source told ThePrint.
“The Raje camp is reciprocating the positive gestures, but she will wait for heads of the poll campaign and management committees to be named,” the source added.
Ticket distribution will be one of the key jobs of the poll campaign committee head, and Raje’s “supporters are demanding her appointment”.
‘Unfulfilled promises will nail Congress’
Talking to ThePrint, Joshi lashed out at the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, arguing that “the CM’s unfulfilled promises of farm loan waiver, unemployment allowance for youth and waiver of electricity charges will be the nail in the coffin for his party”.
“The youths and farmers were betrayed. If you look at the crime statistics, there has been a huge spurt of crime in Rajasthan under the Congress. Appeasement politics has become the norm,” he alleged.
“Rajasthan was known for its cohesive society, but under the Gehlot government, restrictions were placed on religious festivals and celebrations.”
He added that the people’s anger was evident in the recently-concluded ‘Jan Aakrosh Yatra’ of the BJP in the state. “The rally has become a model for any opposition party. Lakhs of political workers participated in every village and town to raise the issues of the common people, and such a protest happened because of people’s participation. It became a hit,” Joshi contended.
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‘Modi will be face of party in Rajasthan’
Joshi told ThePrint that the BJP would fight the Rajasthan election in the name of PM Modi as he was the most popular face of the party.
“We have the most popular face in the world — Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No party has such a person who has worked tirelessly to establish trust among people through his work, and we feel proud of having such a popular face,” he asserted.
He further said the Modi government was the “most popular in the world” while the Congress was on the decline, and alleged that “Gehlot was attacking Modi to please the minorities in Rajasthan”.
“For nine years, the Modi government has worked for farmers, the poor, the youth and the elderly. It has strived to extend the benefits of welfare schemes to maximum beneficiaries, be it the PM’s housing scheme, or Jan Dhan Yojana, or Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. The Modi government has done in nine years what the Congress could not do in the last 60,” Joshi pointed out. “I am not saying these things — people in Rajasthan are saying so.”
According to Joshi, Modi became a “leader because of the public” and the “Congress should introspect why the people rejected the party and why it lost ground, instead of humiliating the country”.
Joshi also defended Poonia against charges of not taking everyone along in the Rajasthan unit, saying that the former state chief worked well for expansion of the BJP “but I will work more with coordination with senior leaders”.
“Satish Poonia worked well. He expanded the party and held pravas (tour) in the entire state — something no other state unit chief has done in the past. I will continue his work and will take everyone on board to work in coordination,” Joshi said. “I will take revenge for the betrayal of mothers, farmers and the youth, and will become the people’s voice in the coming days.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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