A purported audio clip of Vasundhara Raje has gone viral on Friday, after a 22-year-old resignation letter penned by Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia went viral recently. In the audio clip, the former Chief Minister can be heard recognising the members of ‘Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Manch’ as her own people.

Raje can also be heard in the clip directing the forum’s district president Tarachand Sharma to continue running the platform.

The audio clip established that Raje is directly associated with the activities of the Manch. Inside political circles, this leakage of the audio-file is being seen as a retaliatory move by Vasundhra’s critics. Such critics are from the people in RSS lobby who are angry that a 22-year-old letter of Poonia was leaked last week to embarrass the state BJP president.

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The infighting in the Rajasthan BJP is being linked to the leakage of the Vasundhara Raje audio clip. Over the past several months, Vasundhara loyalists have formed the ‘Manch’. They have also demanded that Raje be declared as the party’s chief ministerial face for the 2023 elections.

The ‘Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Manch’ is a platform being run on social media for the past few months demanding Raje to be announced as the CM face for 2023. But, up till now, only the followers of Raje were seen voicing their opinions on social media. In this regard, the latest audio clip has raised questions about whether Raje herself is backing this platform.

At the beginning of 2021, many eyebrows were raised when the list of presidents of this forum was announced for each district of the state. That gave rise to speculation that Raje is floating her own political party.

Over the next few months, Raje was silent over the doubts. That had put an end to the discussions. But, her followers still continue to declare her as the CM face for the 2023 elections.

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, Raje continued doing philanthropic work through this forum. It has been running an entity parallel to the state BJP unit.

Upon the release of this audio clip, silent whispers in the political corridors are once again hinting at Raje planning to go solo in the upcoming Assembly elections.

There has been no response from the Raje camp. District president Tarachand Sharma has said that Raje was speaking about continuing the philanthropic work, and there is nothing more to it.

A few days after a three-page resignation letter written by Poonia 22 years back went viral on social media, the audio clip has gone viral. Satish Poonia is presently in Delhi holding discussions with senior party leaders on a range of issues concerning the party in Rajasthan.

Ever since the appointment of Poonia as the state BJP President, factionalism is running deep into the saffron party in Rajasthan. It is evinced as Raje’s posters were removed from state BJP headquarters.

Raje has been maintaining a distance with the party office. She has even stayed away from the campaign for the recent bypolls.