In her first reaction to the ongoing power tussle in Rajasthan Congress, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje said people in the state were paying for the discord within the ruling party.
"It is unfortunate that the people of Rajasthan are paying for the discord within the Congress,” she said on Saturday.
Raje lambasted the Congress for dragging the BJP into the controversy and said the interest of people must be paramount for the government.
"There is no point in trying to drag the BJP and the BJP leaders' names through the mud. It is the interest of our people that must remain paramount!" she said.
In a brief statement put out on Twitter, Raje pointed out that the COVID-19 has claimed more than 500 lives in the state so far and positive cases are close to 28,000.
The crisis in government, according to her, comes “at a time when locusts are attacking the farmers' fields, when crime against women is at an all time high and when there is a problem of electricity across the state”.
#RajasthanFirst pic.twitter.com/tkOKWCi2Sz
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) July 18, 2020
Raje's statement came a day after a BJP ally alleged that she had been trying to "save" the Ashok Gehlot government in the state.
"Former CM Vasundhara Raje has been trying her best to save the Ashok Gehlot government, which is in a minority. Many MLAs of the Congress were called up by her in this regard," Hanuman Beniwal, a Lok Sabha MP, had claimed in a tweet on Friday.
The Congress government in the state has been embroiled in a deep political crisis ever since rebel leader Sachin Pilot declared an open revolt against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Pilot was sacked as deputy chief minister and the president of the state unit of the party.
Raje maintained a steadied silence while the BJP was cautious in its reactions even as the Congress accused the saffron party of trying to topple the state government.
