NEW DELHI: Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar is being inducted into the Union Cabinet as a ‘reward’ for good work but there is another BJP Chief Minister whose head is on the chopping block, and who is likely to be brought to Delhi as ‘punishment’ for poor governance.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has just not been able to strike a rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is on her way out of the state because of allegations of spiralling corruption and autocratic behaviour. Raje has taken on the role of ‘her imperious majesty’ as a local scribe described it, rarely meeting her legislators, and having little to no contact with the masses.

On a ‘yatra’ of the state recently, she lived only in palaces with legislators and local people lined up outside for an audience with her. Unlike her earlier term in office when she was seen as more approachable, Raje is now hesitant to make contact with the people who are kept at a distance. On a recent visit to a village in Sikar, she lost her temper when local Jat women blocked her path with demands, and fired a couple of officers for not anticipating this.

Raje has been trying to keep on the right side of the RSS with regular visits to their state headquarters. However, her relations with Modi remain strained, more so after he refused to make her son a Minister in the central government. Observers from Rajasthan noticed that there was no eye contact or exchange of words between the two at the ostentatious swearing in ceremony of the Maharashtra chief minister recently. Similarly in Haryana Modi seemed to be ignoring the Rajasthan CM.

Raje also tried to woo the Muslims in the state, and managed to persuade the Jamiat Ulema i Hind leader Mahmood Madani to campaign for her and the BJP before the elections. Madani carried out an aggressive election in her support but since then she has not given him an audience, with the Jamiat leader appearing to be rather peeved over his sudden drop from favour.

Not just the Congress, but also local BJP leaders speak of alleged money deals with a magazine survey maintaining that only six per cent of the persons polled saw her as ‘honest.’

The money factor has gone against her on the ground, with former IPL commissioner and her aide at one time, Lalit Modi, tweeting against her. “t seems that crooks are being given safe passage and harbored by @VasundharaBJP well time is here to expose #the #ugly #political nexus”” Modi tweeted.

This was a step further from an earlier tweet where he had given her the benefit of the doubt with “The Lady Is a #wonderful #person but she now surrounds herself with #crooked #coterie who have #opened a #shop in #cmo #khamthans #bhardwaj.”

The reference in the last tweet, and similar ones before these, were to Officer on Special Duty in the Chief Ministers office Dhirendra Kamthan, and her press advisor Mahendra Bhardwaj. Of course Lalit Modi was also upset because lately the Chief Minister has not been supporting him, but given the increasingly popular perceptions against her, his tweets struck a resonance with the BJP and others in Rajasthan. Significantly Raje did not respond to this attack.

Interestingly, in his series of tweets Lalit Modi even suggested a replacement for Raje as the state chief minister. He tweeted, “People in #rajasthan are #fedup of #remote control politics. Best is to bring in #stalwart #om #mathur who will be #hands on #cm at least.”

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Om Prakash Mathur ,a RSS pracharak, is seen to be fairly close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. He was given charge of Uttar Pradesh, and more recently Maharashtra, and has access to the power circles in Delhi. He was earlier BJP president of Rajasthan but had to tender his resignation then after the BJP lost the elections to what was attributed as his policy to bring in new faces. It is not clear whether he has overcome this sufficiently to make it to the top post, although he is now being trusted with bigger party assignments.