With a delay in the appointment of Rajasthan BJP president, the party’s state in-charge and national vice-president, Avinash Rai Khanna, has been camping in Jaipur for the past few days and is taking part in a series of outreach programmes.
On Saturday, Khanna met family members of Gajanand Sharma, a Jaipur resident, who is lodged in a Pakistan jail for the past 36 years, and assured them of his safe and early return. Khanna has written to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj urging her to help secure Sharma’s release from Pakistani jail.
On Sunday, Khanna addressed ‘eminent citizen conference’ organised by BJP in Jaipur. Khanna has also been meeting party’s public representatives, including MPs and MLAs from Rajasthan apart from other office-bearers. He has also met religious heads and has been visiting prominent temples.
“We are taking the report card of the work done by the BJP government in the past four years to the public. Rajasthan has thrown up BJP and Congress governments alternately in the past, and I want to break this cycle,” Khanna said.
BJP is planning to organise nine ‘rath yatras’ in seven divisions of the state with three state ministers assigned each division. During the yatra, state ministers will stay for one day in each assembly constituency and have dinner at a party worker’s house. The ‘rath yatras’ will be launched from Jaipur and Jodhpur divisions later this month. The yatra will cover one assembly area in a day. During this, there will be three small meetings and a large public gathering in the evening.
{{/usCountry}}BJP is planning to organise nine ‘rath yatras’ in seven divisions of the state with three state ministers assigned each division. During the yatra, state ministers will stay for one day in each assembly constituency and have dinner at a party worker’s house. The ‘rath yatras’ will be launched from Jaipur and Jodhpur divisions later this month. The yatra will cover one assembly area in a day. During this, there will be three small meetings and a large public gathering in the evening.
{{/usCountry}}Khanna along with former state BJP president Ashok Parnami and state general secretary (organisation) Chandrashekhar flagged off ‘Modi marathon’ from Amar Jawan Jyoti on Sunday.
Differences between chief minister Vasundhara Raje and BJP chief Amit Shah has delayed the appointment of a new president of the party’s state unit by more than six weeks now.
Parnami resigned as Rajasthan BJP chief on April 16 after BJP lost in the by-elections to two Lok Sabha and one assembly constituencies.
Sources said Shah wants to appoint Jodhpur MP, Gajendra Shekhawat, who is also a union minister, as the new state unit president, a move that hasn’t elicited much support from Raje. Shah, on the other hand, has rejected the names suggested by Raje.
Party leaders in Rajasthan have little clue as to when the state unit president will be appointed. The standard response is that the name will be announced shortly.