New Delhi: A senior minister refusing to withdraw his resignation for over three months, party legislators alleging bureaucracy’s rule, failure to implement some promises from the poll manifesto and fake registration of doctors.
Just 9 months into its term, the BJP’s Bhajan Lal Sharma-led government in Rajasthan has been dealing with a number of crises. Several BJP leaders told ThePrint that this was a result of the party’s high command handing over the reins of the state to a first-term MLA and undermining senior leaders such as former CM Vasundhara Raje.
This comes at a time when the BJP state unit is gearing up for assembly bypolls. Six assembly seats in the state fell vacant after the sitting MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year. The Election Commission has yet to announce the date for the byelections.
For one, the resignation of Agriculture and Disaster Management Minister Kirodi Lal Meena has been hanging over the government like a sword for months. Meena, a prominent tribal leader and a veteran figure in state politics, submitted his resignation in June, soon after BJP’s dismal performance in the general elections and in Rajasthan, where it was reduced from 25 to 14 seats.
However, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has yet to accept his resignation. Meena also refused to relent on his resignation when pressed by BJP national president J. P. Nadda.
On Sunday, the senior minister attended the cabinet meeting, leading to the impression that the issue had been resolved. However, it was not so.
A senior BJP leader, not wanting to be named, said, “The day Kirodi Lal Meena ji attended the cabinet meeting, everyone thought that the issue had finally been resolved and that the government could move ahead. But soon after that he issued a statement that his resignation was still valid and he had urged the CM to accept it.”
“His resignation has become a major headache for the government and the party,” the leader added.
A close aide told ThePrint that Meena had attended the cabinet meeting only to raise the “burning issues related to the youth and corruption”.
“Meena ji attended the meeting to highlight the fact that corruption in recruitment to state services and paper leaks in a series of competitive examinations for government jobs requires an impartial investigation. He also demanded that the sub-inspectors recruitment exam of 2021 needs to be cancelled due to evidence of a paper leak,” explained the aide.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Meena, 72, said his resignation was still valid and he was not clearing any files.
“I have resigned from the post of minister wholeheartedly,” he said, leaving the party’s state unit president Madan Rathore embarrassed after he claimed that Meena’s attendance showed he was still a minister.
Defending the government, Laxmikant Bhardwaj, spokesperson of Rajasthan BJP, told ThePrint, “This is the first government that has started implementing its poll promises from day one, whether it is the ERCP (Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project) or setting up a SIT on organised crime and paper leak. The police have caught many named offenders. We have given subsidised cylinders. MoUs have been done in the power sector.”
“As far as Kirori Lal Meena ji is concerned, he’s a senior leader and BJP and the government take him very seriously as he’s part of the government and the party,” Bhardwaj added.
Meena flags paper leaks & registration of fake doctors
On 1 October, the Rajasthan government formed a six-member ministerial committee to examine the extent of the paper leak in the 2021 sub-inspector (SI) recruitment exam to ascertain whether the exam should be cancelled. The decision followed demands by Meena to have the exam cancelled.
Meena also started another controversy by claiming he personally highlighted to CM Sharma on 24 September, the alleged fraud in the registrations of Rajasthan Medical Council (RMC)—where unqualified individuals managed to register themselves as doctors using fake documents.
The RMC registrar and two other personnel have been suspended in connection with the incident, officials said Tuesday.
‘Bureaucrats running the govt’
With the government and the BJP leadership already on their toes over the allegations from Meena, several MLAs and ministers have also claimed their work is not getting done because “bureaucrats are running the government completely”.
“When issues being raised by MLAs and ministers are not getting resolved, who will listen to (the issues) of the public? Poori sarkar bureaucrats chala rahein hai. (The entire government is being run by the bureaucrats). These days, there’s a running joke that there’s no CM,” said a senior BJP leader.
Explaining the current situation in the Bhajan Lal government, an MLA said, “There is a tug of war between ministers while bureaucrats are having a field day.”
“There are two camps within the bureaucracy itself and two senior officers are running the government,” said an MLA.
“At the same time, the central leadership had felt that having a first-time MLA would ensure that they would be able to manage things from Delhi but the state of affairs in Rajasthan has made it clear that things can’t be micromanaged from Delhi,” he added, referring to CM Sharma. Sharma was elected to the Rajasthan assembly for the first time last year, from the Sanganer constituency.
Another party leader said that rather than being criticised by the Opposition, this was the first time when the government was being “opposed from within”.
In one case, a senior party leader said a delayed bureaucratic reshuffle that took place on 8 September drew criticism for ignoring seniority and for not replacing officers who were appointed during the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.
“There was a major goof-up in the reshuffle. In a few cases, officers from the same batch were not given postings at par and then later had to be revised. The government is an example of complete mismanagement and if things aren’t put in order soon it will spell more trouble for the BJP with the bypolls all set to take place,” the senior party leader said.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s a government. The bypolls are upon us and, yet, there’s no work happening,” said a state functionary.
Poll promises yet to be implemented
According to a senior party leader, the party’s membership drive in the state also performed poorly, mostly because people are upset that welfare measures that were promised in the poll manifesto have yet to be implemented.
“When we go on these membership drives people ask us what happened to the promise of jobs creation, around 30 lakh domestic power consumers are not getting benefit from the government’s scheme of free 100 unit electricity as the power department has put new registrations on hold and on top of that we have paper leaks in recruitment exams,” a state functionary said. “Why would people want to become a BJP member in such a scenario? Naturally the numbers have dipped.”
Despite winning the assembly elections in December last year, the state unit of the party was only able to enrol 26 lakh members against the set target of over 55 lakh, sources in the party said.
“The state unit is being pulled up by the party president and other senior leadership rather than trying to find out what exactly is going wrong in the state,” the state functionary added.
Senior leaders sidelined
Many senior leaders feel that the BJP’s situation has a lot to do with how senior leaders are being treated by the party.
“The way they have sidelined Vasundhara Raje ji is not hidden from anyone. Senior leaders are being completely ignored by the party and even the new in-charge stoked controversies due to his comments as it had hurt the Rajput community,” said a party leader.
The issue can be traced back to the meeting held 20 August in Jaipur wherein the newly appointed state in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agrawal targeted the party’s MLAs, MPs and district presidents, including prominent Rajput leader Rajendra Rathore, who were absent from the membership drive programme.
At the time, the Rajput outfits, the Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena and the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, threatened to boycott assembly bypolls and “teach the BJP a lesson” for insulting Rathore.
“The central leadership needs to take immediate decisions and many are even pointing out that the CM should be replaced,” said a senior BJP leader.
Raje’s obscure comments at a party function in August were also seen to be aimed at the chief minister, as well as junior party leaders for being elevated to prominent posts. “When some people get brass nose pins, they start thinking of themselves as gold traders,” she had said.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
