As Vasundhara Raje skips core meet; Rajasthan BJP says social media won't decide CM face

Amid growing internal feud within the Rajasthan BJP unit, party chief Satish Poonia trained guns at former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for skipping the party's core group meeting held on Sunday in Jaipur city. 

Taking a dig at Raje, Poonia said, social media will not decide the party's next Chief Ministerial candidate. The decision will be taken by the BJP leadership and whoever the party chooses, will be the candidate for CM post.

The state BJP chief was referring to a platform named 'Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Rajasthan (manch)' that was floated on social media by supporters of the former CM, demanding the party high command to declare her as the Chief Ministerial candidate for 2023 elections. 

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Shortly after that 'Satish Poonia samarthak morcha' also popped up. The BJP state president, however, rejected the platform, calling it social media mischief and said that he is not in favour of such a support group. Unlike the BJP state president, Raje, however, did not distance herself from the social media groups that floated in her support.

A few days ago, top leaders of the Rajasthan BJP including Satish Poonia, Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria and Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore met national BJP President JP Nadda in Delhi. The meeting of the top leadership led to rumours about internal differences within the state BJP.

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Vasundhara Raje skips first core group meeting

On Sunday, Vasundhara Raje decided to skip the first meeting of the party's core group in Jaipur. The reason cited for the senior BJP leader's absence was her daughter-in-law's ill-health. Other party leaders who gave the core group meeting a miss were Kataria and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav.

As per reports, the BJP top brass had decided in favour of forming a core group in order to sort out differences between senior party leaders in the state.

Notably, Raje has been skipping most of the meetings held at the party office in Jaipur ever since Ashok Gehlot government came to power in Rajasthan in December 2018.

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Despite all rumours surrounding her, Vasundhara Raje's name was added in the list of core group members of the Rajasthan BJP. Other leaders whose names found mention in the group were Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kailash Chaudhari.

Satish Poonia, Gulabchand Kataria, Lok Sabha MPs Kankamal Katara and CP Joshi, Rajya Sabha MP Rajendra Gahlot are some of the other members of the group. The state's core group meeting is expected to be held at least once a month. 

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