After bypolls debacle, Rajasthan BJP leaders write to Amit Shah, demanding Vasundhara Raje's ouster

After drubbing in the recently-concluded Rajasthan bypoll, state Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have written to party president Amit Shah demanding Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's resignation.

According to CNN-News18, several leaders had been deliberating on the reasons for the triple drubbing in the bypolls - one in Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats - and now feel that all is not well within the Rajasthan BJP.

BJP's president of Kota OBC cell Ashok Choudhary has written a letter to Amit Shah and demanded CM Raje's resignation by citing discontent among party workers after bypoll results, according to media reports.

In his letter, Choudhary said, "Vasundhara Raje has steered the party on a path from where defeat seems inevitable."

"Farmer, employees, workers and all sections in Rajasthan are very angry. All the workers of Rajasthan BJP want a change in party's leadership and I also want Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Parnami to be sacked immediately," Choudhary's letter to Amit Shah, reports News Nation.

In a major setback to the party, BJP lost Lok Sabha by-polls to Ajmer and Alwar constituencies to the opposition Congress by substantive margins. Both seats were held by the BJP and the elections were necessitated after the death of the sitting MPs.

The results were being seen as a major jolt to the Vasundhara Raje government just 10 months ahead of the Assembly elections.

BJP also lost the by-elections to the lone Assembly seat to the Congress despite an independent candidate polling more than 30 thousand votes in a triangular fight.

But the margin of defeat in both Alwar and Ajmer has become a matter of worry for the party. BJP lost Alwar by more than 1.9 lakh votes, and Ajmer by more than 80,000.

Alwar, in the last two years, has registered many incidents of cow-vigilantism and communal polarisation.

BJP won the last Assembly polls in the state with a three-fourth majority. Later in the Lok Sabha elections, party trounced Congress to win all 25 seats.

Meanwhile, Raje on Sunday had said that the bypoll results were a "wake-up" call for her government and had asked her MLAs to avoid "self-goals". Addressing a BJP legislative party meeting, Raje had said that there was no need to lose hope over the bypolls. But it seems that her call to unite her cadre ahead of the polls had little effect on some within the party ranks.

OneIndia News