By PTI
KOTA: Senior BJP leader Arun Singh on Wednesday said the party is supreme and an individual comes later, a day after a massive show of strength by former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje on her birthday in Bundi.
The Raje’s show of strength was attended by over half of the party MLAs and around 10 MPs.
Singh said BJP leaders and workers should have more participation in the party’s programmes.
Singh also warned of action if anyone worked to weaken the party and said they will not be given a chance if they apologised later.
Meanwhile, Raje continued meeting her supporters in Kota and said the love and affection people have given to her is her asset.
She said she will continue to visit temples and meet people as her “life is dedicated to God and the public”.
She, however, dismissed the claim that a sizeable number of BJP legislators and her supporters joining at the event in Bundi was a “show of strength”, saying the phrase was coined by the media.
Singh, who is BJP’s incharge for Rajasthan, was in Jaipur on Wednesday.
He interacted with the party leaders and later held a press conference, in which he primarily attacked the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.
When reporters asked him about Raje’s birthday celebrations in Bundi’s Keshoraipatan town on Tuesday in which over 40 MLAs and other leaders including MPs were present, Singh said, “There is no objection if someone celebrates birthday but it should be taken care that party is supreme and an individual comes later.”
“Everyone should take care of it. Our leader is PM Narendra Modi, and Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh are our leadership. This should be taken care of that they (party leaders/workers) should have more participation in party programmes,” he said.
Singh said the party is taking note of shallow statements given by any leader and will take appropriate action at the right time if anyone tried to weaken the party.
“No one will be given a chance if they come later and apologise for weakening the party. The party is our mother and all should work to expand the party,” he said.
When asked that Raje was missing from a recent massive demonstration by the party against the state government in Jaipur, Singh told the reporters to talk about those who were present at the demonstration and not about those who were absent.
Meanwhile in Ajmer, Rajya Sabha MP Om Mathur said birthday celebrations should not be seen as a show of strength.
He said such shows have no importance.
“In the entire country, there is just one face and the face is of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he told reporters.
When asked by reporters about the CM face of the party in Rajasthan, he said the decision regarding it is taken by the party’s parliamentary board.
No one gets anything through the show of strength, he said.
After offering prayers at the Keshorai temple in Bundi, Raje had addressed a mass gathering which was attended by over 40 BJP MLAs, out of total 71, around 10 MPs and many other leaders apart from thousands of people.
The MLAs had skipped the Assembly session to attend Raje’s programme, from which the party kept a distance.
In Kota, before the press conference of Singh, Raje interacted with reporters and said she was overwhelmed by the love and affection of people, calling it her asset.
“Only two things are most important in my life, one is God and other is public and my entire life is dedicated to both,” Raje told reporters.
The BJP national vice president, who has been the chief minister of Rajasthan twice in 2003 and 2013, said she would visit every division to have darshan at temples, hold interaction with people and console the families who lost their kin to the pandemic.
Raje refused to comment on the absence of party workers from Kota and Bundi in the Tuesday’s programme, but said that the people from the far end of state came to convey her birthday wishes.
Referring to the Covid pandemic, Raje said she could not go for “Dev Darshan” at temples and interact with the public for two years and now she is out on tour to have darshan at temples and interact with the public.
On the massive gathering on Tuesday, she said, “If I continue to receive the same love and affection even after 2030 years, it is my fortune.”
