BJP STILL FAR FROM THE MARK

TO DEPOSE GEHLOT, THE BJP WILL HAVE TO DO MORE THAN HINDUTVA. SETTLE ON A LEADER, FOR ONE. VASUNDHARA RAJE IS EN ROUTE

- Rohit Parihar

It was supposed to be politics of the peaceful sort: a bit of schmoozing with local party figures, a bit of outreach to influential Scheduled Tribe segments, a soft launch to the campaign for next year’s assembly election. But by the time BJP president J.P. Nadda’s visit to Sawai Madhopur in east Rajasthan wound up, it had got singed in the flames of the worst flare-up the state has seen in recent times—right next door in Karauli. That went according to the usual script: bracketed between peace meetings on either side, there was a Hindu procession through a Muslim-dominated bazaar, provocative slogans from one side, stone-pelting from the other, arson as a counter, over a dozen shops gutted, some 35 injured, arrests, curfew. It was likely a coincidence that it happened on the same day, April 2. But with both the ruling Congress and the challenger BJP beginning to get into campaign mode 21 months before actual polling, the events have the potential to frame Rajasthan politics in a way that both sides are ambivalent about.