M A I N   N E W S

Finally, Raje steps down
Snubs party chief, hands over resignation to Advani
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje finally quit her position as the leader of the BJP legislative party in Rajasthan here today after dilly-dallying and refusing to heed the diktat of party president Rajnath Singh for over two months. Implicitly, she has also ceased to be the Leader of Opposition in the the Rajasthan Assembly.

Even today Vasundhara pointedly snubbed the president and instead preferred to give her long letter of grouses and grievances against the party high command (read Rajnath Singh) straight to her mentor and senior leader LK Advani. Also asking why she was being singled out and penalised for party reverses when others continued in their posts (again read Rajnath).

Within hours of her meeting with Advani, Rajnath summoned the parliamentary board and announced his decision to accept her resignation. Board member Sushma Swaraj said Rajnath reminded the board of its decision of August 17, authorising him to ask her to step down and in view of that decision he had decided to accept the resignation with immediate effect.

Advani, present at the meeting, did not speak a word and left immediately thereafter without exchanging pleasantries with any of his party colleagues. While leaders refused to comment, it was clear that Advani was not too happy with Vasundhara’s ouster. Significantly, she too preferred Advani, considered her mentor, to list all her grouses and grievances. In the evening she went to meet former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and sought his blessings.

Sushma, meanwhile, insisted that Vasundhara had put no preconditions nor asked for any other posts in her letter. But she admitted that she had stated that she was being singled out while others had been spared. Though while talking to reporters Sushma did not agree with this premise and recalled how Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri was also asked to step down.

Incidentally in the last meeting held on October 15, the BJP parliamentary board had set October 22 as the deadline by which Vasundhara should quit to avoid any disciplinary action and authorised Sushma Swaraj to speak to her. The board, scheduled to meet yesterday, postponed its meeting for forenoon today and then again for the evening, with messages coming in that Vasundhara was going to meet Advani today. Vasundhara did not even go to meet Sushma yesterday. She phoned up Sushma to cancel her appointment, pleading the presence of newspersons outside her house as the excuse.

With RSS backing, Rajnath has been urging Vasundhara to quit soon after the general elections, but she had been ignoring him all along. Finally on August 12, he formally asked her to go. Instead of heeding the call, she sent in a delegation of party MLAs, threatening to split the party if she were removed. An incensed Rajnath put the matter before the parliamentary board on August 17 which approved his decision but asked him not to set a deadline. On August 21, Vasundhara came and met Rajnath asking his leave to attend the two-day special session before quitting.

On August 31, she came back to Delhi ostensibly to meet M Venkaiah Naidu to submit her resignation letter. But instead of meeting him she sent in her son with a letter mentioning her grouses and preconditions.