Why Reports Suggesting Vasundhara Raje Could Become BJP President Might Just Be Rumours

A few reports in the Hindi media suggest that the former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia is the frontrunner for the post of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national president.

Moreover, they say that the name has been put forward by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The speculations are fuelled by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's Alwar visit earlier this month.

Bhagwat reportedly met Raje during his five-day stay in Rajasthan's Alwar from 13 to 17 September and held discussions in this regard. RSS reportedly also rejected Shivraj Singh Chouhan's name for the post.

The post of the BJP president has been vacant since 30 June as the tenure of Jagat Prakash Nadda ended. However, without the election of a new president, Nadda is continuing to act as the party's national chief.

While it is unclear yet who will succeed Nadda, who has to vacate the post because he became Union Health Minister in the Modi government, the recent reports of Raje being the one appear to be just rumours. Here's why:

1. Relatability: Raje is known for leading a lifestyle that well suits a royal. It is a safe guess that on the other hand the BJP would want to project its leaders as being down-to-earth. The alleged elitism in Raje's personality may not align with the required qualities of a BJP president — who is expected to meet, and be accessible to, karyakartas.

A BJP president is also expected to be diplomatic and accommodative to keep all the allies together and lead the talks for new alliances, especially at a time when the BJP is not in full majority itself.

However, Raje is known to be blunt. It has rarely been heard that she sought to convince her detractors to come along. On the contrary, she was the one who was cajoled by the party's high command on several occasions.

Discipline is also one of the required qualities for a BJP president. However, in the past, Raje has not shied away from sending out rebellious signals and reportedly, even tried something similar in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

2. Equation With Modi-Shah: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are not believed to be the strongest supporters of Vasundhara Raje. In fact, the call to bypass her and make Bhajan Lal Sharma the Rajasthan CM is attributed entirely to Modi and Shah.

Even in the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly elections when the 'Modi tujhse bair nahin, Vasundhara teri khair nahin' slogan was echoing in Rajasthan, Shah reportedly wanted to replace Raje with Gajendra Singh Shekhawat but could not succeed.

3. Equation With RSS: Despite the reports in the Hindi media, it is very unlikely that the RSS will support Raje's name. Raje and the RSS don't share worldviews. A day in the life of an RSS pracharak is completely different from a day in the life of Vasundhara Raje.

Raje's tenure as chief minister has even faced allegations of being a period when there was 'no CM after 8 pm', suggesting that she would not meet anyone after 8 pm and instead, allegedly party or drink.

4. The Caste Angle: Rajputs have been known to be angry with the BJP for quite some time, leading to the party's Lok Sabha losses in western and central Uttar Pradesh and even Rajasthan, where the party could not make a hattrick of a clean sweep.

While a section of the media claims that giving prominence to Raje can help woo Rajput voters, Raje is not actually a Rajput. She hails from Scindia royal family of Gwalior and was married into Jat royal family of Dholpur.

Scindia is an Other Backward Community (OBC), as her nephew and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has confirmed. In Rajasthan, she is perceived to be a Rajput because of her royal lineage.

However, that perception might not work across the nation because she is not actually from the Rajput community.

5. The Family Equations: One member of her extended family, Jyotiraditya Scindia is already a Union Cabinet Minister. Elevating Raje as the national BJP president will lead to charges of one family dominance on the BJP, which the party would seek to avoid.

Moreover, Raje's son Dushyant Singh is already a Member of Parliament (MP) in Lok Sabha from Jhalawar. If Raje becomes the national president, she will also need to become an MP like her predecessors Nadda, Shah, and Rajnath Singh.

This will either compel Dushyant to give up his Lok Sabha membership or violate the party's 'one family one post' policy.

Thus, Swarajya believes that the search for a new BJP president is still on and it has not come to a stop with Raje. "This (recent reports) is nothing more than a rumour," a Rajasthan-based journalist told Swarajya.