New Delhi/Jaipur: Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who is Delhi along with some of her supporters, is likely to meet senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday in a bid to end the standoff in the party over her refusal to resign as Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly.
Raje is scheduled to meet Naidu at noon today to discuss the issue and end the stalemate. Naidu was appointed as the pointsman by the party high command when all attempts to pressurise Raje into resigning her post failed.
However, sources close to party president Rajnath Singh said Raje is not likely to meet him till the stalemate ends.
Singh had asked her to resign as Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly following the party's defeat in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
However, defying the party diktat, Raje sent more than 50 of her MLAs to Delhi in a show of strength to the central leadership. These MLAs also tried to meet senior leader LK Advani to seek his intervention but he snubbed them by refusing an audience.
Raje mellowed down later when on August 28, she was summoned to Delhi to meet Naidu. Affirming her loyalty to the BJP, Raje said she was a "disciplined soldier" of the party and its order was "supreme" to her.
The former Chief Minister, who claims support of 70 of the 78 state legislators, had said she would like to go for talks as quickly as possible to sort out the problems.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, August 31, 2009, 11:29