Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Thursday got another one-week's time to step down as the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. She was dodging the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for over two months on the issue.
Party president Rajnath Singh has now asked senior party leader Sushma Swaraj to persuade Raje to resign without making a fuss, a responsibility earlier given to former BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu.
The party firmed up that Raje will have to go as per the BJP parliamentary board decision in August and in any case before the board's next meeting on October 22.
Her immediate removal was not pressed for in view of the upcoming Diwali festivities, but a plea to keep her in place until the assembly by-elections in the state was turned down, sources said. Rajnath Singh asserted that she could campaign for party candidates even without holding the post.
If she resists, the board will fix a date on October 22 for her removal and the election of her successor by the party legislators, party sources said after a meeting of the board that rejected her plea to review its decision.
The board, which held a lengthy meeting after the party's central election committee first cleared candidates for various assembly by-elections, felt any reconsideration would send a wrong signal of allowing indiscipline in the party, sources said.
She should have resigned the day the board formally asked her to step down, but she has
been putting conditions that cannot be allowed as it defies the party discipline, a source said.