Raj BJP chief's 'book politics' with Vasundhara

On Saturday, Poonia visited Raje's residence for a courtesy call and gifted her "Yeh Sambhav Hai" written by IPS officer Kiran Bedi. It was their first meeting after Poonia's appointment as state party chief around one and a half month back.

Raje has been absent from all official meetings and gatherings of the party ever since Poonia took the party chief's post in the state.

Raje apparently believed that there would be no substitute to her in the party in Rajasthan but the central leadership has elevated many leaders to the rank of cabinet ministers, minister of state and even Lok Sabha Speaker, ever since BJP lost the Assembly election under her.

Hence "Yeh Sambhav Hai" (or literally "this is possible") is a clear statement from Poonia to the former Chief Minister.

The other book gifted to her was "Ramayan Banam Mahabharat" written by DevDutt Patnayak that symbolises her differences within the party which soared when she resisted the elevation of Gajendra Singh Shekawat as the BJP president after Ashok Parnami was removed from his post following the party's debacle in bypolls in April 2018.

Since then, Raje had remained absent from all formal functions and gatherings of BJP as well as during major programmes and campaigning held during bypolls which was being discussed widely.

Raje's office though confirmed that only one book was gifted to her "Yeh Sambhav Hai", although the BJP office released the news that two books were gifted to her, which again highlighted the strain between the party and Raje.

Poonia's "book politics", however, doesn't confine itself to Raje alone, as just a few days back, the BJP state chief met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at his residence and gifted him two books written by Dattopant Thengadi "Dr Ambedkar and Social Revolution" and "Deendayal ko Jaano".

Gehlot has been criticising the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in most of his gatherings and pressers. Both books from Poonia to Gehlot talk about the RSS ideology.

spoke to Poonia about his books to Gehlot. Poonia said: "As I was in a hurry to go, I went to library to find out if there can be some good books there for Gehlot. As they have been following Ambedkar's policy, so thought of gifting him a well written book on Ambedkar and then the book on Deen Dayal Upadhyay also had a lot to say and hence I picked both these books," he added.

( With inputs from IANS )