Fast and Food-ious Navratri Gesture by Shekhawat for Raje & Company Seals Election Truce in Rajasthan BJP?

It’s optics like the one witnessed on Thursday evening that make elections in India a truly unique spectacle. And as in most cases, food was the unifier.

The core group of Rajasthan unit of the BJP was huddled in a meeting at the residence of Union minister and the party’s state incharge Prahlad Joshi ahead of Friday’s central election committee meeting. Several leaders at the meeting, including chief ministerial contender Vasundhara Raje, were fasting for Navratri during which only certain foods can be consumed.

As reporters camped out on the road, waiting to know details of the meeting, a remarkable sight caught their attention – bowls of food being rushed in from the house opposite Prahlad Joshi’s residence. Sources later said the bowls contained makhana (foxnuts) and fruits that are consumed during fasts.

The food was sent by the family of Union minister and senior Rajasthan BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who also fasts on all days of Navratri. A BJP leader sending food to a party colleague’s house may seem like a routine affair, but the gesture marks yet another moment of camaraderie between Vasundhara Raje and Gajendra Shekhawat, traditionally viewed as rivals for the post of Rajasthan chief minister.

Raje, who has been seen as being quite vocal against Shekhawat in the past, has had several one-on-one meetings with the Union minister over the last fortnight. The leaders seem to have put aside their perceived differences for the common goal of unseating the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had swept to power with 100 seats, dislodging the BJP government led by Vasundhara Raje.

Amid speculation that he too may be fielded by the BJP in Rajasthan election 2023, Shekhawat had recently declared that he is not in the race for the chief minister’s post.

Reports had suggested that the Jodhpur MP may also be asked to fight the state elections, possibly from Pokhran constituency. He, however, said there has been no discussion on this, but any decision by the party’s top leadership will be followed.

“I am not in any kind of race. I only do the work my leadership and the organisation gives me to do. I have no aspiration or desire other than this,” the Union Jal Shakti minister had said.