New Delhi: The BJP on Friday announced a name different from Amit Shah's initial choice for Rajasthan unit chief, with many claiming that chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia had managed the "unthinkable" feat of making the party president blink.

Rajya Sabha MP Madanlal Saini was declared as the BJP's choice for the post of Rajasthan unit chief, over two months after the resignation of the incumbent. Party leaders attributed the unusual delay to Raje's stiff opposition to Shah's choice of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Jodhpur MP.

"Raje didn't get a leader of her choice but she didn't allow Shah to have his way either. This itself is quite unthinkable in the present party set-up," a BJP leader associated with the party's Rajasthan affairs said.

"The maharani (Raje) has forced Shah to blink," the leader added. Raje hails from a royal family and she is popularly referred to as "maharani".

BJP leaders in Delhi said this was possibly the first instance in the "new BJP" of Shah not having his way.

Ashok Parnami, the incumbent Rajasthan BJP president considered a staunch loyalist of Raje, had tendered his resignation on April 18. The move was seen as part of Shah's efforts to overhaul the state unit after by-election defeats and prepare the BJP for the year-end Assembly polls.

Shah had picked Union minister Shekhawat as the new state head of the party, but the decision had been vetoed by chief minister Raje, sources said. She was learnt to have proposed the name of state minister Srichand Kriplani and some others, but Shah did not agree, the sources said.

Several meetings were held but Raje, the sources said, didn't budge and Shah finally gave in, evident from the final selection.

Saini hails from the backward Mali caste. BJP insiders said the name was agreeable to both Shah and Raje, as well as other leaders in Rajasthan. Raje was opposed to the appointment of Shekhawat as he belongs to the upper caste Rajput community and she feared the central leadership wanted to project him as an alternative to her in the state, the sources said.

The central BJP, however, sought to portray the new appointment as a political masterstroke by Shah. Party leaders said Saini hailed from the same caste as the Congress's former chief minister and the Opposition party's tallest leader in the state, Ashok Gehlot, and so it amounted to social engineering.

Old-timers associated with Rajasthan politics, however, rubbished this line. They felt Saini hardly had the profile to take on Gehlot and said his appointment would not yield any significant electoral benefit.

"He (Saini) will not have the courage to veto maharani Raje and so she will have her way," a BJP party leader said. Raje, the sources said, had wanted a state unit chief who would work under her.

Rajasthan goes to the polls in 2018-end.