The new opening-up is in reaction to the feedback the leadership has been receiving from some of the younger members of the party. On a few occasions, junior functionaries went so far as to let off steam in front of senior ministers. Some of these malcontents are still not hopeful of any improvement and a section of the younger leaders is even questioning the leadership of Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Underlying this discontent is a very real concern about the party's prospects in the Assembly elections later this year; one which has inspired the damage control measuresat the governmental level. Populist measures like regularisation of unauthorised colonies, raising minimum wages in the state, increased salaries and benefits for Government employees, reduced tariffs for transport, water and power, are being employed to woo voters back to the lotus.

To pacify party workers, it has been decided to fill vacancies in the various Boards, Trusts and Corporations in the state, a demand being voiced for some time now by partymen wanting a share in the cake.

Expansion of the ministry is another long-pending demand which might be attended to. Shekhawat himself is looking after a score of ministries and could well do with a lighter burden, it is being said. He avoided appointing any new ministers even when their posts fell vacant following one death and four resignations. Instead, it was decided that two ministers in the Government would assist him in work concerning departments of Energy and Environment and Forests which were under Raghuvir Singh Kaushal till he vacated the poston becoming state party chief.

Apart from distributing loaves and fishes to partymen, there is also an effort to give disgruntled workers a chance to air their grievances. For this purpose, the party has divided the state into three zones and constituted groups consisting of senior ministers and leaders to contact workers and sort out problems district-wise.

Since both the Government and the party will be represented in these groups, it is expected that coordination between the two will improve. Such coordination, partymen feel, has so far been severely lacking. The workers' response to these new measures has been enthusiastic. There were reports of partymen pouring forth their grievances before Education Minister Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Home Minister Kailash Meghwal in Bhilwara.Many of the younger leaders, however, do not expect all this to make much of a difference by the time the elections arrive. Some feel a change of leadership could help. No one has, however, expressed this sentiment in partyfora. Such statements, as in the earlier phases of dissidence, have been limited to ``off the record'' conversations, which had prompted Shekhawat and some other leaders to charge ``sections of the media'' with ``manufacturing'' reports about discontent.

Shekhawat, for his part, has retained his hold over the party and most workers still feel that he remains the party's best bet for the polls. But the real worry is that the best may not be good enough.