There is a possibility that in these states there could be appointment of multiple Deputy Chief Ministers or guardian ministers.
NEW DELHI
The BJP, which won the recent Assembly elections under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, without naming any chief ministerial candidate, continued to maintain a suspense over the names of new Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh even as party leaders indicated that the wait for formal announcement of CMs or their deputies could end on Sunday.
To some BJP leaders the suspense around the CM-naming process appeared superficial as they claimed the proceedings were taking place as per the script written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and National president J.P. Nadda.
The picture in Madhya Pradesh started getting a bit clear with President Droupadi Murmu accepting the resignation of Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel, both of whom have won in the Assembly elections.
Sources said Patel appeared to be the front-runner for the CM’s post in Madhya Pradesh, though both the leaders belong to the OBC. The BJP is determined to replace the current CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who himself is an OBC, with a leader from the same social section as Patel also belongs to the Lodh community. Tomar may be considered for another key responsibility in the new government or may be considered for Speaker’s post. Ahead of the observer’s meeting with MLAs, Patel met the Governor and completed some formalities and later met Chouhan on Friday.
Civil Aviation Minister and Gwalior royal Jyotiraditya Scindia’s name also remained in circulation though he himself made efforts to deny this.
Senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, who himself has won the Assembly election, said that the suspense over selection of new Chief Minister was likely to get over on Sunday.
The acceptance of resignation of Union Minister Renuka Singh by the President also indicated that she was among the strong contenders for the Chief Minister’s post in Chhattisgarh along with state BJP chief Arun Sao.
Earlier, the appointment of party observers for the three states—three teams of three members each and their planned interaction with party MLAs on Sunday dominated the developments related to picking new CMS. Soon after the announcement of the election results, the action had shifted to the Delhi headquarters of the BJP in anticipation of the announcement of new CMs and their deputies, but it gradually started shifting back to state capitals with central BJP observers heading to their assigned states over the weekend.
While MLA meetings with observers in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are expected on Sunday, the decision making process in Madhya Pradesh may be taken up on Monday.
For Rajasthan, the BJP has named Union Minister Rajnath Singh and two others, for Madhya Pradesh the three-member observers’ team would be led by Haryana CM M.L. Khattar. Union Minister Arjun Munda would lead the observers in Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, a political observer said “double engine government in top gear” could be focus of the BJP’s strategy while appointing Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers and new ministers in heartland states ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. There also is a possibility that in these states there could be appointment of multiple Deputy Chief Ministers or guardian ministers with responsibilities to implement Union-government-sponsored schemes in a specific Assembly constituencies, coming under each parliamentary seat so as to improve BJP’s performance in Lok Sabha election, said the analyst.
Earlier, amid the suspense over the formation of new cabinet in Rajasthan, a former BJP MLA Hemraj Meena alleged that a group of party MLAs were kept at a resort “Aapno Rajasthan” which is believed to be owned by a Congress leader close to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He alleged that the leaders were taken to a resort at the behest of Dushayant Singh, BJP MP from Jhalawar-Baran, and son of former BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, an allegation that was rubbished by supporters of Scindia.
Rajasthan’s former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje met J.P. Nadda in New Delhi on Thursday night, a day after she reportedly held talks with over two dozen party MLAs in Jaipur in a virtual show of strength. Some of the names of potential CM faces in the state include Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Diya Kumari and Kirorilal Meena—all three have resigned from Parliament after winning the Assembly elections in the desert state. Saffron-clad Baba Balaknath’s name also remained in news with speculation rife that the BJP may consider him as CM if it wants to repeat the successful experiment of helming Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier in the week, speculation over Chhattisgarh CM name revolved around the names of former BJP chief Vishnu Deo Sai, former bureaucrat O.P. Choudhary, Gomati Sai, who won the Assembly election and resigned from Parliament. A total of a dozen BJP MPs from three states have resigned from Parliament after getting elected as MLAs in different states.
Dissecting the saffron sweep in the recent Assembly elections, political analyst Ritwick Srivastav said, “Congress party’s Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh teams became overconfident and complacent because of the positive opinion polls. Their candidate selection and campaign strategy was faulty. On the other hand, the BJP used all the tactics in the book: aggressive campaigning, polarisation, use of agencies and out-of-box candidate selection.” “In my opinion, Congress did not lose MP and Chhattisgarh but BJP snatched victory from them,” he said, adding that over 30% of the seats have been won by BJP with wafer thin margin.