With assembly elections scheduled by the end of this year, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has asked her party men, particularly ministers in her Cabinet and MLAs, to come out of slumber, spend more time in their constituencies and address grievances of their electorates. According to sources, this follows a feedback from the various constituencies of the state that the Chief Minister received. Peeved by the fact that her party’s elected representatives are not doing enough for the people who have put them in power, she has even set a timeframe of one-and-a-half months for the ministers and MLAs to put their “report card” in order.

The sources say the missive came during a recent meeting between Raje and her MLAs. She is believed to have told them that their performance in their constituencies will be the sole criterion on which they should hope to get party tickets in the state polls. Though taking feedback on her MLAs’ work in respective constituencies has been a routine affair for the Chief Minister, this time, the sources say, she has taken the matter more seriously given the looming prospects of losing power at the hustings.

The sources, close to Raje, claim that she has also made a list of MLAs whose performance will be watched closely in the coming months. Though she did not name anyone in particular, she is supposed to have told her party men that she knows exactly “what each of them is doing”.

With the stern warning has come a list of ‘must dos’ for the elected representatives of the ruling party, which includes as many visits to their constituencies as possible. With the state Government planning a series of employment camps in villages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Chief Minister has told the MLAs and her Cabinet ministers to participate in these camps.

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