Kirodi Lal’s resignation is yet to be accepted, with BJP president J P Nadda summoning him to Delhi. But, this has further strengthened the impression that there is more than meets the eye to his move.

Some believe Kirodi Lal is still sulking over the BJP denying his brother Jagmohan Meena the Dausa Lok Sabha seat ticket, picking instead Kanhaiya Lal Meena, who lost. The Congress too had waded in at the time, with former health minister Parsadi Lal saying that even his own party would have been happy fielding Jagmohan.

After the polls, the BJP did not just pick a Chief Minister but also two Deputy CMs junior to Kirodi Lal in both age and the party. Apart from being a six-time MLA, Kirodi Lal is a two-term Lok Sabha MP and one-time Rajya MP.

Then, in the Cabinet, Kirodi Lal got the Agriculture department, but the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department – traditionally given to the same minister – was divided between him and Madan Dilawar.

However, BJP insiders say, Kirodi Lal may not find the party very accommodating. While he is one of the axes of tribal politics in Rajasthan, the other being Bharat Adivasi Party MP Rajkumar Roat, Kirodi Lal was never a choice for the top post. In fact, it is his assertion as a leader in his own right that goes against him, at a time that the BJP has shown preference for low-key leaders who are not major power centres, especially in Rajasthan.

There are many examples – Vasundhara Raje, whose marginalisation in the state unit is now complete, capped with the appointment of a virtual unknown Bhajan Lal Sharma as CM; Gulab Chand Kataria, the party’s tallest region in the Mewar region who was moved out as Assam Governor; and Rajendra Rathore, former Leader of the Opposition, as well as ex-state president Satish Poonia, who find themselves out of the reckoning in the state after losing in the Assembly elections. Two days ago, Poonia was made the party’s Haryana in-charge.

Raje, who has maintained a deafening silence, gave a rare hint of her hurt recently, saying: “Today, people want to cut off the finger which they once held to learn to walk.”

The BJP still has ‘tall’ leaders in the state, but they are seen more as Delhi’s people – Om Birla, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat or Bhupender Yadav.

However, clearly not all is going as per the BJP central leadership’s plans in Rajasthan. While the party quashed any Congress hopes in the Assembly polls, in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress picked up 11 seats – after drawing a blank in both 2014 and 2019.

Some in the BJP believe the Congress performance was a reflection of the lack of cohesion within the state BJP. A BJP leader who had been a ticket hopeful during the Assembly polls talks about how confusion prevailed at the time. “We didn’t know where to apply for tickets, with Raje, Rathore, C P Joshi (Rajasthan BJP chief), Gajju banna (Gajendra Singh Shekhawat), or go to Delhi.”

The Lok Sabha results have also strengthened doubts about the central leadership’s top-down approach, picking names as per its own understanding of the situation (caste and otherwise).

Following Kirodi Lal’s resignation, Congress leader Himmat Singh Gurjar repeated a remark by a Meena supporter: “Dharna deve Kirodi Lal, Mukhyamantri ban gayo Bhajan Lal (Kirodi Lal sat on dharnas, but Bhajan Lal became the CM).”

One consistent line of attack by the Congress against the Bhajan Lal government has been that it is “toothless”. Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra says it is Rajasthan’s “misfortune” that a “parchi (paper slip)” government will be “run by Delhi” – a reference to the fact that the BJP leadership conveyed its choice of next CM via a paper slip, which was handed over publicly to a visibly stunned Raje.

Moreover, the optics haven’t been right. CM Bhajan Lal, state party president Joshi and Governor Kalraj Mishra are all Brahmins. When Bhajan Lal took over, the DGP (Umesh Mishra) and Chief Secretary (Usha Sharma) were also Brahmins.

A senior party leader pointed out, “There is no general secretary (Organisation), no state in-charge, the state president is also an MP, and the CM is a first-time MLA… The feedback system is broken too. Earlier, we had inputs from the RSS as well.”

The best example of the loss of touch with the ground was the BJP’s performance in the Shekhawati region, where it paid the price for Jat anger. There were barely any serious attempts by the party to pacify the community.

Another leader questioned the way Raje was sidelined, saying that even if the high command didn’t want her at the helm, she could have been used to guide younger leaders while the transition was made.

However, there are those in the party who laud the choice of Bhajan Lal as CM, as proof that the party rewards hard work and devotion rather than entrenched names. “At the Chief Minister’s Office or residence, it is normal to spot a common man from the remotest of places going in to meet the CM… At party programmes, he usually stays back long after the programme is over to meet party workers, all of whom he knows personally,” a CM loyalist said.