NEW DELHI: The demand for the removal of Vasundhara Raje as Rajasthan Chief Minister — led by Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari in the State and Jaswant Singh at the Centre — following the Gujjar-police and Gujjar-Meena clashes has gathered momentum. But BJP president Rajnath Singh has made it clear that there will be no change now.

As one senior leader put it on Saturday, "Does one change the commanding officer in the middle of a war? The priority at the moment is restoration of peace in Rajasthan."

In fact, some senior leaders said any hint from the central leadership at this juncture that Ms. Raje might be asked to resign would aggravate the situation, as dissidents would become active.

In the morning, the leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses of Parliament, L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "to discuss the entire situation arising from the violence," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil were present.

While help from the Centre in the form of forces was being coordinated by the Chief Secretary of the State and the Home Secretary here, the discussion with the Prime Minister was on a possible political solution to the problem arising from the Gujjars' demand for Scheduled Tribe status, the BJP leaders said.

The party wanted to know what the Centre would do or would not do in the context of the Gujjars' demand. Significantly, this meeting took place before Ms. Raje met some Gujjar leaders in Jaipur.

Later, four senior BJP leaders — Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajnath Singh, Mr. Advani and Mr. Jaswant Singh — met at Mr. Vajpayee's residence to review the situation in the light of discussions with Dr. Singh, who separately issued an appeal to the people to maintain calm, help restore peace and not to do anything that could lead to escalation of violence.

Over the last two days, the BJP leaders have been trying to convey to the media that "only the Centre" has the power to grant ST status to any community and that the process is lengthy and difficult. If this was the case, why did the leaders in Rajasthan make the promise? The response to this question was that the promise was made in some Gujjar pockets. However, the fact that the State Government set up a group of Ministers for this purpose establishes that it meant business.

Now the BJP seems to want the Centre's help in making good that promise even as it is wary of the fallout what with the Meenas opposing ST status for Gujjars as the concession would eat into their reservation benefits.

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