After waiting many days for her to quit as BJP legislature party chief in Rajasthan as decided by the BJP parliamentary board earlier, the party is now planning to send Vasundhara Raje to campaign in Maharashtra. In fact, the party has listed Raje as a “star speaker” in its list of speakers for Maharashtra and Haryana given to the Election Commission.

For instance, in the BJP’s 40-member Haryana list, Raje’s name is 12th— a notch below the likes of S S Ahluwalia (8), Narendra Modi (9), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (10) and Raman Singh (11). However, Raje is unlikely to campaign in Haryana.

“She may go to Maharashtra, if her health permits,” confirmed BJP vice-president and campaign in-charge Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Sources said the Maharashtra unit of BJP had sent requests for Raje to campaign “for a few days in the state”.

However, an influential section of the BJP, which regards Raje as a rebel leader after the developments in Rajasthan in the last two months, is uncomfortable with the idea of listing Raje as a star speaker in its EC list, and then sending her to the state for election campaigning.

Rajasthan BJP chief Arun Chaturvedi, however, chose to give a guarded reaction to the latest development. “She (Raje) has publicly stated that she would abide by the party high command order. I, therefore, see nothing wrong in her going to Maharashtra to campaign for party candidates,” said Chaturvedi, after addressing election meetings in Mumbai. The states of Rajasthan and Maharashtra have traditionally enjoyed a bond that is evident during the elections—three BJP candidates in Mumbai have their roots in Rajasthan.