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Dissidents meet in Jaswant’s village

JAIPUR: Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party rebels battling Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday met in Jassol, the ancestral village of senior party leader and former Union Minister Jaswant Singh, in Barmer district. The dissidents had boycotted this past weekend’s BJP State executive meeting at Sanwaliaji in Chittorgarh despite the presence of senior leader L. K. Advani. None of them had turned up to meet party president Rajnath Singh the previous day as well during his visit to Jodhpur to inaugurate the annual “Swadeshi Mela”.

Those who accepted the invitation from Mr. Jaswant Singh and his son and MP from Barmer, Manavendra Singh, included Cabinet Ministers Narpat Singh Rajvi, Ghanshyam Tiwari and Madan Dilawar and the chief whip of the ruling party, Mahavir Prasad Jain. The other vocal critics of Ms. Raje, BJP national vice-president Kailash Meghwal and former State unit presidents Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Raghuveer Kaushal were also present.

Jaswant Singh seemingly has become the rallying point for the dissidents, who are asking for removal of the State BJP chief Mahesh Sharma to start with. The “samel” (the get-together accompanied by a meal) in Jassol apparently was to mark the end of a five-day public contact tour of Barmer district by Mr. Jaswant Singh the past week.

Curiously enough, none of the five BJP MLAs from Barmer was present at the function. Two MLAs spotted were Jogeshwar Garg and Shankar Singh, both from neighbouring Jalore district. “I have come here to feast,” Ghanshyam Tiwari was quoted as saying by local newspapers. In recent times, Mr. Tiwari had hosted Mr. Jaswant Singh in Jaipur on more than one occasion, every time making those opposed to Ms. Raje get closer.

“We are here to attend a family function,” explained Mr. Chaturvedi talking to local journalists in Barmer. “We would communicate what we have discussed here to the party leadership in Delhi,” he said.

“I have already conveyed my viewpoint to the party,” Mr. Meghwal said.

The gathering, which did not have anyone from the camp supporting Ms. Raje, reportedly had a meeting lasting three hours in which Mr. Manavendra Singh also joined.

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