With caste violence in Rajasthan refusing to die down, pressure is building up on Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to restore normalcy.

The clear message that has gone out to Chief Minister Raje, who has been in contact with the BJP president Rajnath Singh and other top leaders of the party, is that it must somehow bring peace back to the troubled areas, and actively engage protesting Gurjjar and Meena community leaders in a dialogue process.

As the violence even touched neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, another BJP-ruled state, a worried party today discussed immediate damage-control measures.

While the effort of the BJP central leadership on Thursday had been to intervene effectively in the crisis management—top leaders monitoring the situation from Delhi and representatives from the central unit watching the situation on the ground in Jaipur—on Friday their efforts were aimed mainly at curbing the unrest, keeping the issue of a lasting solution in dialogues with the Gurjjar community for later.

Since taking over as Chief Minister, Raje has battled dissidence within the Rajasthan unit and the latest events, which her opponents blame on her seemingly poor crisis-management skills, have again brought up the leadership issue. They blame her for being ineffective in dealing with the crisis and ignoring it when the Gurjjar issue was building up.

However, support for her has come from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party president Rajnath Singh, with whom she enjoys a personal rapport. Besides, the absence of a credible option to her has stood as an advantage for her in the past.

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