By Express News Service
JAIPUR: After a 22-year-old resignation letter penned by Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia went viral recently, a purported audio clip of Vasundhara Raje has gone viral on Friday, where the former Chief Minister can be heard recognising the members of ‘Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Manch’ as her own people.
In the clip, Raje can also be heard directing the forum’s district president Tarachand Sharma to continue running the platform.
The audio clip has established that Raje is directly associated with the activities of the Manch. This audio leakage is being seen in political circles as a retaliatory move by Vasundhra critics, especially from the RSS lobby, who are angry that a 22-year-old letter of Poonia was leaked last week to embarrass the state BJP president.
The leakage of the Vasundhara Raje audio clip is being linked to the infighting in the Rajasthan BJP. Over the past several months, Vasundhara loyalists have not only formed the ‘Manch’ but have demanded that Raje be declared as the party’s chief ministerial face for the 2023 elections.
It needs to be mentioned here that the ‘Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Manch’ is a platform being run on social media for the past few months. The forum has been demanding Raje to be announced as the CM face for the next Assembly elections scheduled in 2023.
However, to date, only the followers of Raje were seen voicing their opinions on social media. But the latest audio clip has raised questions about whether Raje herself is backing this platform.
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Many eyebrows were raised at the start of the year when the list of presidents of this forum was announced for each district of the state, giving rise to speculation that Raje is floating her own political party.
But Raje’s silence over the next few months has put an end to the discussions, while her followers still continue to declare her as the CM face for the 2023 elections.
Raje continued doing philanthropic work during the Covid-19 pandemic through this forum, running a parallel entity to the state BJP unit.
Now with the release of this audio clip, silent whispers in the political corridors are once again hinting at Raje planning to go solo in the upcoming Assembly elections.
However, there has been no response from the Raje camp till the filing of this report, while district president Tarachand Sharma has said that Raje was speaking about continuing the philanthropic work, and there is nothing more to it.
The audio clip has gone viral a few days after a three-page resignation letter written by Poonia 22 years back went viral on social media.
Factionalism is running deep within the saffron party in Rajasthan ever since the appointment of Poonia as the state BJP President. Since then, Raje has been maintaining a distance with the party office, even staying away from the campaign for the recent bypolls.
Recently, her posters were removed from state BJP headquarters.
Poonia is presently in Delhi holding discussions with senior party leaders on a range of issues concerning the party in Rajasthan.
(With agency inputs)