Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said he is not in the race for the chief minister’s post amid speculation that he too may be fielded by the BJP in the Rajasthan Assembly polls. As elsewhere, the Bharatiya Janata Party has not projected any leader as its CM candidate in the Congress-run state. But former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Shekhawat are being seen as possible contenders if the party wins.
There is a buzz that Shekhawat may also be asked to fight the state elections, possibly from Jodhpur’s Sardarpura assembly constituency, which is currently held by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Shekhawat said there has been no discussion on this, however, any decision by the party’s top leadership will be followed.
He said, “I am not in any kind of race. I only do the work my leadership and the organisation give me to do. I have no aspiration or desire other than this.”
The Union Jal Shakti minister said the BJP legislature party will take the decision on the chief minister’s post, and that will then be validated by the party’s parliamentary board.
Shekhawat dismissed allegations by some local leaders that they were denied the party nomination this time because they were in the Raje camp. “There is no faction or group in the party and everyone is a ‘karyakarta’ (worker). The party decides who are the most suitable and gives them the responsibility of contesting the elections,” Shekhawat said, reacting to protests by some disgruntled ticket seekers.
On the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society “scam”, he accused Gehlot of misusing the state police and targeting him because of his son Vaibhav Gehlot’s defeat in Jodhpur in the last Lok Sabha elections.