Udaipur:
After bitter infighting in recent years, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje is back leading the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign in Rajasthan as the state gears up for elections later this year. A fact made amply clear by BJP President Rajnath Singh who endorsed Ms Raje as the party's chief ministerial candidate as he flagged off the 'Suraj Sankalp Yatra' from Udaipur on Thursday.
Speaking to NDTV, Ms Raje, who was the first woman chief minister of the state, played down the dissidence within the Rajasthan BJP, saying "let bygones be bygones".
"We work as a family. There are tiffs, as in any family there are ups and down. But families move on. I will be lying if I say that there are none. It doesn't help to be at loggerheads," she said, ahead of the
yatra, aimed at seeking public mandate in the upcoming polls.
But the campaign is more a sign of the 60-year-old leader being back at the helm of party affairs in the state that has seen factional wars in the last few years. The party saw a massive rebellion after its dismal performance in the last assembly elections in 2009.
But Mr Singh, on Thursday, publicly backed Ms Raje, praising her five-year rule as chief minister that he said was excellent as compared to the present Congress government.
The party also accused Congress leaders of using "derogatory language" for Ms Raje in the party's 'Sandesh Yatra', which was launched in Jaipur last week.