BJP chooses Bhajanlal Sharma as Rajasthan CM over Vasundhara Raje
What's the story
In a surprise move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named first-time MLA Bhajanlal Sharma as the new chief minister of Rajasthan after over a week of suspense.
The announcement came following a key meeting of the newly-elected party legislators and central observers in Jaipur on Tuesday.
The saffron party also chose Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa as the deputy chief ministers.
Context
Why does this story matter?
The BJP unseated the Congress and made a comeback in Rajasthan in the recent assembly elections, winning 115 seats in the 200-member House. The latter was restricted to just 69 seats.
The saffron party won the recent polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as well. It chose fresh faces as chief ministers in these states, too, Mohan Yadav and Vishnu Deo Sai, respectively.
Twitter Post
Watch: Sharma announced as Rajasthan's new CM
#WATCH | BJP names Bhajanlal Sharma as the new Chief Minister of Rajasthan pic.twitter.com/j3awHnmH7k
— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2023
About
More about Rajasthan CM-designate Sharma
Sharma (56) is a first-time MLA from the Sanganer Assembly constituency in Jaipur. He defeated the Congress's Pushpendra Bhardwauj by a margin of 48,081 votes.
Sharma is the longest-serving general secretary of the BJP (four terms) in Rajasthan.
He belongs to the upper-caste Brahmin community, unlike the BJP's new Chhattisgarh and MP CMs—who are from the tribal and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) communities, respectively.
Details
These were BJP central observers for Rajasthan
BJP central observers—Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and senior leaders Vinod Tawde and Saroj Pandya—and newly-elected MLAs presided over the Jaipur meeting where the final decision on the CM was made.
Meanwhile, two-time CM Raje, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union ministers Gajendra Shekhawat and Arjun Meghwal, state chief CP Joshi, and MLAs Diya Kumari and Mahant Balaknath were also reportedly in the race.
Additional information
Raje proposed Sharma's name for post
The announcement came after several top contenders met the central BJP leadership.
Even Raje flew to Delhi to meet top leaders, while numerous MLAs visited her.
On Tuesday, reports said it was Raje—the party's face in Rajasthan for over two decades since becoming the CM first in 2003—who proposed Sharma's name for the top post, and the BJP accepted her suggestion.
Election results
BJP's recent success in assembly polls
The BJP secured a solid comeback not only in Rajasthan but also in Chhattisgarh in the recently concluded five state polls, winning 54 seats.
Moreover, it successfully retained power in Madhya Pradesh, securing 163 seats in the 230-member assembly.
On the other hand, the grand old party managed to unseat the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana, winning 64 seats to claim a majority.