Jaipur: BJP’s infighting has once again come to the fore with former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s loyalists asking the BJP to sever ties with Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).
The BJP leaders have attacked Beniwal over his threat to quit the NDA over the farm laws.
BJP leaders Pratap Singhvi, Bhawani Rajawat, Prahlad Gunjal and Vidya Shankar Nandwana have said that Beniwal should stop threatening the BJP and that he is welcome to withdraw support from the NDA.
The leaders who are seen to be close to Raje, have written to union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda asking why despite threats to withdraw support from the NDA, the BJP is tolerating Beniwal.
In the letter, the leaders said it was Beniwal who had sought BJP’s support ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the BJP does not need Beniwal. They said Beniwal has regularly been criticising and insulting Raje and this cannot be tolerated.
Beniwal’s rivalry with Raje is an open secret. Beniwal, who was a BJP MLA, had quit the party after differences with Raje and since then he has been openly attacking her and alleging that she is working hand in glove with chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
Replying to the BJP leaders, Beniwal said they have no standing in the BJP. He said the RLP-BJP alliance was formed at the national level with Shah and prime minister Modi and they will decide its future.
Beniwal had joined hands with the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections even though Raje was reportedly against the alliance.
Singhvi, Rajawat, Gunjal and Nandwana are BJP leaders from Hadoti region of Rajasthan covering Kota, Jhalawar and Baran districts which are seen as a stronghold of Raje who is MLA from Jhalawar.
In the recent municipal corporation elections in Kota, there were allegations that these leaders worked against the BJP and the party lost both corporation seats.
