After a fortnight-long drama which saw her virtually defying the BJP’s central leadership, Vasundhra Raje is believed to have agreed to tender her resignation from the post of leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan assembly after meeting senior party leader LK Advani and party president Rajnath Singh here, late on Saturday evening.
According to Raje’s supporters, she has laid down some conditions before the party gets her resignation. One of her prime concerns is to have a successor of her choice in the Rajasthan assembly. Raje is also looking for a respectable position for herself in the central leadership Delhi.
The final decision would be announced after the party works out this package. Party functionaries are of the view that she may have submitted her resignation letter to Rajnath Singh with the two agreeing that it would be announced at a later date. Officially, the party was keeping everything under wraps.
Raje reportedly emerged tense from her meeting with Rajnath Singh and left without speaking to journalists waiting for details of her talks at Singh’s residence. No statement was forthcoming from the party president. Sources said Rajasthan BJP chief Arun Chaturvedi had met Advani and Rajnath earlier in the day and discussed party matters.
Raje had arrived in Delhi on Friday, choosing to travel by road with a number of “road shows’ thrown in as a show of strength.
Earlier, despite being given marching orders and told to resign as leader of opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, Raje had remained defiant refusing to come to Delhi and meet senior Party leaders. She sent her MLAs to Delhi in a show of strength, but party chief Rajnath Singh viewed it as an act of indiscipline.
Following the expulsion of a leader as senior as Jaswant Singh over alleged violation of discipline, it was clear that Raje had no option left but to toe the party line and tender her resignation as leader of opposition in Rajasthan assembly. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj also made it clear during “chintan baithak” in Shimla that Raje will have to put in her papers, that even B C Khanduri had been asked to resign as Uttarakhand Chief Minister after the party failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat in the state.
