Click to play videoJaipur: It’s the ultimate in Photoshop politics. A poster anointing Rajasthan Chief Minister as a Hindu Goddess has raised the hackles of her political opponents and hasn’t even gone down well with the BJP leadership.
“There's no room for worshipping individuals within the party and the party disowns any such efforts,” said BJP’s Jaipur Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqwi.
Many feel the controversial poster is the latest episode in the power struggle between Raje and former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh.
It was Singh’s wife Sheetal Kanwar who filed the complaint against the publisher of the poster and the MLA who released it.
Singh is said to be upset over the slow pace of rehabilitation of flood victims in Barmer as it would affect the prospects of his son Manavendra Singh, the Barmer MP.
But so far he has desisted from making a direct attack. “My wife is a free citizen she takes her own decisions, please go and ask her about it,” he said after the poster controversy snowballed.
But this episode is only the latest cause for tension between Singh and Raje.
While she stayed away from the send off when Singh went to Pakistan's Hinglaj Temple, he made a political statement by releasing a book by Raje's political rival and education minister Ghanshyam Tiwari.
But Raje's supporters see no controversy over the calendar.
“The CM is indeed a Goddess, there's no harm in saying that, there's nothing wrong about the poster,” said BJP MLA from Jaipur Veeru Singh Rathore.
Individual cults - that's the issue the BJP has always cornered the Congress on, perhaps that's why its being forced to stick to its stand at the cost of making a clear indication to Vasundhara Raje and her supporters.
Next month when the BJP's tops leaders meet in Jaipur, the infighting in Rajasthan just over a year before the elections, will clearly dominate.
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