Vasundhara Raje waves to supporters after BJP won the Rajasthan Assembly polls. (PTI)
After the BJP's splendid performance in Rajasthan Assembly elections,
Vasundhara Raje was today elected as the leader of the party's legislature party by her 162 MLAs. The meeting was attended by central BJP observers Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah and Bhupendra Yadav in Jaipur.
Ms Raje will meet the Governor Margaret Alva on Tuesday to stake her claim to form the government and the swearing-in ceremony will take place on December 13.
Ms Raje, 60, wrested power from Congress's Ashok Gehlot with one of the most outstanding electoral performances of recent times, winning 162 seats of the state's 200 seats.
She thanked Narendra Modi, who extensively toured Rajasthan during the election campaign, for her party's winning on Sunday. "Narendra Modi is a very big factor. People have seen what he has done in Gujarat. He has shown this is a model that can be followed everywhere," said Ms Raje, who is going to be the new chief minister of Rajasthan.
"This is the semi-final to what is going to happen," she added, holding that the results portend a return to power for her party in the national election, due by May.
Rajasthan saw high-pitched campaigns by the top leaders in both parties. Mr Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, and Rahul Gandhi, the man many see as his chief rival for the top post in the 2014 general elections, toured the state extensively.
The ruling Congress drew flak over its choice of candidates when it fielded the relatives of two politicians in jail in connection with the Bhanwari Devi murder case.