New Delhi: An alleged “insult” of prominent Rajput leader from Rajasthan, Rajendra Rathore, by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agrawal has snowballed into a big political row, with two Rajput outfits demanding an apology from the Rajya Sabha MP and threatening to “teach the BJP a lesson” in the Assembly by-polls.
Rathore, a seven-time MLA, had lost from Taranagar in the 2023 Rajasthan elections. He has previously served as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Rajasthan Assembly.
The Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena and the Shri Rajput Karni Sena have threatened to boycott the polls and “teach the BJP a lesson”.
The issue can be traced back to the meeting held 20 August in Jaipur wherein the newly appointed state in-charge Agrawal targeted the party’s MLAs, MPs and district presidents, who were absent from the membership drive programme.
“During this meeting, he specifically targeted Rajendra Rathore. Rathore ji had attended the meeting though he is now not even an MLA and neither does he hold any organisational position. He had some prior engagements and midway he had to leave. Agrawal ji from the stage pointed at him and asked the state president (Madan Rathore) to check with him why he had to leave. He also warned him and said that no one is above the organisation,” a senior BJP leader recounted the incident.
According to a senior party functionary, the episode angered some of the BJP leaders as well as Rathore’s supporters, who took to social media and ran a hashtag campaign ‘Rajendra Rathore nahi toh bhajapa nahi’ (No Rajendra Rathore, no BJP).
An enraged Rajput community staged protests and during one of the meetings that was held in Jhunjhunu, BJP state president Madan Rathore had to leave the meeting midway to appease the protestors.
Though the Rajputs have traditionally supported the BJP, they also were one of the factors that led to the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally tumbling down to 14 Lok Sabha seats, a precipitous decline from the two preceding general elections. The BJP had pulled off a clean sweep of all 25 seats in 2014 and secured 24 in 2019, with an ally winning the remaining seat.
The Congress, meanwhile, added fuel to fire by stating that a Rajput leader of the stature of Rajendra Rathore had been humiliated in such a manner.
Rathore had to intervene by posting on social media that a needless controversy was being created.
“Some people on social media are spreading misconceptions about me and the BJP organisation and are running an unrestrained trend, which I oppose. I have dedicated my entire political life to the BJP organisation and in future too, I will continue to work continuously to strengthen the organisation as a worker. I appeal to all my supporters and workers not to make inappropriate comments on social media. If BJP is there then we are there,” he posted on ‘X’.
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Not quiet on the front
Nevertheless, a senior party leader said before Agrawal, Arun Singh was the state in-charge of Rajasthan and that he never dealt with such episodes in public.
The central leadership needs to focus on this issue too, this functionary said.
The situation has become all the more alarming for the faction-ridden BJP as the Rajput community has threatened to boycott the polls.
Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Chaurasi, Khinvsar and Salumber will go for Assembly by-elections in Rajasthan. These seats fell vacant after four MLAs successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections, while Salumber legislator Amrit Lal Meena died earlier this month.
Though the dates have not been officially declared, both the Congress and the BJP have started preparing for it. The elections will also be seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma.
Agrawal, who faced massive protests by the Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena, was unavailable for a comment.
A party functionary gave details of what transpired during a Jhunjhu district meeting in which Madan Rathore had to give in to the demands of the Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena.
“Workers of the Rajput community led by Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena state president Manohar Singh Ghodiwara started shouting slogans forcing Rathore to leave the meeting midway to meet the protesters,” the party functionary said.
The Karni Sena gave a memorandum to the BJP state president expressing displeasure over the remarks made by Agrawal and demanded that he be removed from the post. “At the same time, they said that BJP will be taught a lesson in the by-elections.”
Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena state president Manohar Singh Ghoriwara asserted that a senior Rajput leader has been insulted, adding that the party needs to take immediate action.
“He is a senior leader, and he is being treated like children in schools while taking attendance. Jo Rajasthan ko sikhate hai ye unki class lenge? (Will they take classes of those who teach Rajasthan?) He is a respectable leader who has served as MLA multiple times and also been the minister in the past,” he told ThePrint.
“We will continue to protest against his humiliation, which is an insult to the entire Rajput community till Agrawal doesn’t openly apologise. Rather we are also demanding that he be removed from his post.”
The Karni Sena leader said that if the party doesn’t take appropriate action, the Rajputs would boycott them in the upcoming by-polls. “We have been noticing that Rajput leaders are being insulted by the BJP regularly, and they will have to pay a price for it. We will continue our protests wherever Agrawal will go in the state,” he added.
BJP state chief Madan Rathore had tried to assuage the protesters saying that Rathore is his elder brother and a senior leader of the party as well as a senior member of the BJP family, and that “neither has the BJP ever insulted him, nor can any BJP worker ever tolerate his insult”.
Shri Rajput Karni Sena president Mahipal Singh Makrana asserted that the BJP has been insulting Rajput leaders of late and needs to mend its way.
“Rajputs are being insulted by BJP leaders. The previous state in-charge Arun Singh was not like Agrawal, he respected all. Right from UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Rajnath Singh and now Rathore are being humiliated by the party. We have already taught them a lesson in Lok Sabha and if they don’t take action, we will be forced to do the same during the by-polls,” Makrana told ThePrint, while pointing out that the community traditionally has been BJP loyalists.
(Edited by Tony Rai)