Infight in Rajasthan BJP is almost at par with Congress and comes to the fore time and again. This time, party’s Rajya Sabha MP Kirori Lal Meena has targeted state president Satish Punia and accused him of not being supportive in his agitation against the state government on the issue of the question paper leak and demand for a CBI probe in the matter.
Kirori Lal Meena is a veteran BJP leader and was on a Dharna for 12 days on the issue. Although Satish Punia visited the Dharna and met Meena last Saturday when Meena called off the Dharna, he targeted Satish Punia for the alleged lukewarm response from the state BJP to his protest.
"Satish Punia had told me that the protest of Yuva Morcha would simultaneously begin, but nothing happened. I am disappointed to say that the energy with which the BJP should have taken a stand on the issue under his leadership is missing," said Meena to the media.
Now, came a letter that was reportedly written by Meena to the senior leaders of the party urging them to support his agitation on the issue of question paper leak of government recruitments. "The issue is important as it is a concern of 66 lakh unemployed youth of the state and their families," reads the letter.
Satish Punia yet to react
Satish Punia himself has kept mum on the issue when asked by the media but now statements of some of the party leaders are being released by his close ones.
The statements are denying the allegations made by Meena. The vice president of the party Hemraj Meena, state general secretary of Scheduled Caste Morcha of the party Dharmendra Kumar Rathore, and some other leaders have come in support of Punia and said that they are working with Punia and it is baseless to say that he is not active enough. "Punia is visiting the district units regularly and reaching out to the grassroots workers of the party. This kind of allegation on Punia is not justified," said the leaders.
PM Modi to visit Dausa next week
It is pertinent to mention here that this infight comes to the fore just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dausa, Rajasthan where he is going to inaugurate the expressway between Dausa to Delhi on February 12th. This expressway is a part of the Delhi-Mumbai ExpressWay project.
Dausa is the hometown of Kirori Lal Meena and it was reported that the public meeting of PM Modi was first decided at Nangal Rajawatan which is known as the bastion of the Meena community. Meena had started the preparations for the meeting but later on, the venue got changed to Dhanwad and as per sources at the party, this annoyance of Meena towards Punia is somewhere related to this decision to change venue.
Punia under-fire from other factions as well
The attack on the party president regarding his work is also being taken as a move by the other faction of the party that wants a change of guard in the state unit.
This faction is led by the former CM Vasundhara Raje who supported Meena’s protest and all his loyalist leaders reached Dharna to extend their support to Meena.
Notably, the tenure of Satish Punia as party president is already over and the decision is likely to be taken soon on his continuation in the post.
