Rajasthan unrest: BJP to defer conclave

NEW DELHI: Shaken by caste rioting in Rajasthan, the BJP is considering postponing its national executive meeting, which it rescheduled in Delhi from Jaipur after clashes erupted in the saffron-ruled state.

"The atmosphere is not conducive at the moment. It is likely to be postponed by at least ten days," a party source said.

Earlier this week, the BJP rescheduled the conclave in Delhi from Jaipur for June 15 and June 16 as protests over quotas exploded into fierce caste clashes in Rajasthan.

BJP chief Rajnath Singh, who on Saturday ruled out the possibility of removing chief minister Vasundhra Raje for her handling of the crisis, parried questions from reporters about demands from party MLAs for her immediate removal.

"Yesterday was yesterday," he remarked.

Party sources said the feedback to the BJP leadership about Raje's handling of the situation had been quite discouraging.

"It's simply not wise politically to remove her at this juncture. But not many in the party's top brass are defending her either. Action may follow once peace prevails in Rajasthan as elections are just a year away," a senior party leader said.

Raje's own cabinet colleagues are accusing her of mishandling Gujjar protests.

"The government should have dealt with the issue properly but it has not done so," Rajasthan's Panchayati Raj minister Kalu Ram remarked as he met the party chief on Sunday.

He said he had informed Singh about the "ground situation" in the state.

In Delhi too, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh is understood to be critical of Raje while party vice-president Saheb Singh Verma has publicly condemned the police firing on Gujjars at Dausa in Rajasthan.

"She should have acted almost a year ago when she was told about the growing unease among Gujjars over her election promise to get them included in the ST category," a party source said.

He said the party now believes recommending Gujjar demands for classification as a scheduled tribe to the ST commission or to some other Centrally-appointed independent commission could be a way out of the crisis.

"Nobody would like to fall foul of the Meenas, who make up a large portion of the state population," he added.