Ghanshyam Tiwari’s candidature for RS clear hint that Vasundhara Raje won’t be BJP’s Rajasthan CM face

By nominating Ghanshyam Tiwari as the party’s candidate from Rajasthan for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP’s central leadership has given a clear hint to former two-time Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje that the party is not keen to project her as its Chief Ministerial candidate in the state assembly polls due in 2023.

Tiwari (75), a six-time legislator who is considered as the Brahmin face of the BJP in the state, came in conflict with Vasundhara Raje when she first became CM in 2003. Being senior to Raje in politics and having been an activist since the Jan Sangh days, he did not accept her leadership. Although he was made a Cabinet minister, serious differences remained between the two leaders.

In 2013, when Raje led the BJP to power again in the state, she did not include him in her Cabinet. This greatly irked Tiwari, who became openly critical of her as well as Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Tiwari’s ‘anti-party’ activities drew the attention of the leadership and a situation came to pass when he resigned from the BJP on June 25, 2018. In March, 2019, he joined the Congress.

Tiwari was, however, not accepted by the party’s cadre and he quit the Congress, going on to form his own political outfit called Bharat Vahini Party, which was dubbed by political observers as a Brahmin-dominated party without much following.

Tiwari, who was elected from the Sanganer constituency in Jaipur to the Vidhan Sabha, contested the 2018 assembly election against former BJP Jaipur Mayor Ashok Lahoti, but lost his deposit and finished third. It was a humiliating defeat for the BJP stalwart.

Following this, he rejoined the Congress in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, but once again faced opposition from the Congress rank and file and was not given much importance.

Tiwari, with the help of a senior party functionary in Delhi, then wrote an emotional letter to the BJP’s leadership, following which he was re-admitted to the party fold on December 12, 2020 although he was not given any important role.

However, during the BJP’s national executive meeting in Jaipur held recently, party president J P Nadda and other senior leaders evidently felt that Tiwari should be used to get the support of the Brahmin voters in Rajasthan and decided to bring him back to the mainstream.

It may be recalled that during the national executive meeting in Jaipur, the party leadership also made it clear that it would not project anybody as its Chief Ministerial face but rather go to the Vidhan Sabha poll in 2023 by projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image and the NDA’s welfare programmes.

This came as a jolt to the faction supporting Vasundhara Raje, which includes 53 out of the 71 party MLAs and around 12 of the state’s 25 Lok Sabha members.

Tiwari’s nomination as the BJP’s candidate from Rajasthan for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections is clearly meant to drive home the message that Raje is not in the good books of the party’s top leadership.

Considering the current strength of the BJP, Tiwari is sure to romp home.

A group in the BJP feels that the party, by nominating him to Rajya Sabha, intends to promote him to the centerstage of national politics. Considering his long experience and seniority in the party, he may well be given a berth in Modi’s Cabinet to appease the Brahmin community of Rajasthan, they feel.

Incidentally, the BJP has decided not to repeat senior party functionary Om Mathur for another term in the Upper House, where he served for two terms.

Known for his organizational skills, Mathur, who has a strong RSS background, was credited with the BJP’s electoral success in the last Gujarat Vidhan Sabha elections when the BJP faced the wrath of the Patidars.

The denial of a nomination to Mathur gives the impression that he failed to get the backing of the RSS. Mathur was the secretary, organization in the BJP and was considered close to late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as well as both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

He was a national executive committee member of the party and also became one of the party’s principal strategists in Rajasthan. At one stage, he was considered as an alternative to Vasundhara Raje.

Mathur, who reportedly refused to become a minister in Modi’s Cabinet, continued to work for the party.

Now that he has been a nomination to the Rajya Sabha, political observers feel that he may also not be offered a gubernatorial position in a few months when vacancies for governors will arise in several states.

(Views are personal)