Central, State leadership can't be challenged: Raj BJP in-charge

Jaipur: BJP State in-charge for Rajasthan, Arun Singh, has openly announced that central and State leadership cannot be challenged, and each party worker needs to follow party guidelines and discipline. Singh was addressing a press conference in Jaipur soon after the conclusion of a BJP core committee meeting. The meeting started in evening and continued till 1 am on Wednesday.

His statement came in the wake of a rift seen in BJP State units led by two leaders, former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, and Satish Poonia, BJP State president ever since the latter was appointed as state party chief. On Tuesday night, Arun Singh met a few BJP MLAs from Raje's camp at MNIT, Jaipur and reminded them to follow party guidelines.

These MLAs along with other team members had written a letter to national president J.P. Nadda, and State BJP president Satish Poonia alleging that they were treated partially in the Assembly session and were not been given a chance to speak in Assembly.The letter went viral on social media, however, as per Poonia's team, but did not reach both the people it was addressed to.

Sources said that it was an effort to dent on Poonia'a image which did leave the State BJP unit in red. The letter was shot the same day when Poonia and Raje were together in Delhi to attend the BJP organisation meeting where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present.

Poonia, sources said, had taken a complete set of records to be presented to central leadership which also included the stories of parallel unit being formed on social media by Raje followers, her silence on all such activities and her plans to organise 'yatra' from Bharatpur's Krishna temple.

Eventually the central leadership ringed in a truce. Singh asked these MLAs to avoid flouting party lines and directed them saying, "Whatever you want to discuss should be discussed on a right platform in one on one manner but not in this way," he said.

Those MLAs who were called, included Pratap Singh Singhvi, Kalicharan Saraf, Narpat Singh Razvi and former MLAs Yunus Khan, Rajpal Singh and former State president Ashok Parnami. They have complained to Singh that they were being ignored by new team despite being senior members.

Singh told that they should bring their problems on the right platform to the right person, and not before the public.Yunus Khan, Rajpal and Parnami reportedly have been making preparations for Raje's Bharatpur yatra, party sources said. All MLAs who met Singh, though termed the meeting casual.The meeting that went past Wednesday midnight saw Singh initially speak to each MLA individually and then to all in a group, sources said.