New Delhi (TIP) – Five days after the assembly election results for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan were declared, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday, December 8, named central observers for electing the leaders of its legislature parties in the state amid indications that new chief ministers may be named over the weekend, ANI reported. The party has named Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, Vinod Tawade and Saroj Pandey as observers of Rajasthan.
For Madhya Pradesh, the party has appointed Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, K Laxman and Asha Lakra. In Chhattisgarh, Union Ministers Arjun Munda, Sarbananda Sonowal and Dushyant Gautam have been appointed as observers.
An unidentified BJP leader told PTI that the observers are likely to travel to the respective state to oversee the meetings of newly elected MLAs where the future chief ministers will be named. He added that no decision has been taken yet on the choices of the chief minister and the party will keep in mind social, regional, governance and organisational interests in picking the new chief ministers, according to PTI. The BJP ousted incumbent Congress from Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and retained Madhya Pradesh with a landslide victory. This led to the saffron party tightening its hold in the Hindi heartland and gave a big boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
With an absolute majority in the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly, the BJP won 54 seats while the Congress trailed at 35 seats. In Rajasthan, the saffron party won a total of 115 out of 199 seats. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP managed to stave off anti-incumbency after winning 163 seats in the 230-member assembly. However, the BJP bagged only eight seats in the 119-member Telangana assembly as Congress won the southern state by ousting K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Revanth Reddy of the Congress took oath as the new chief minister of Telangana on Thursday, December 7.
Since the poll results on Sunday, leaders from the three states have been meeting the top party brass, including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda. However, sources within the party have played down their significance, saying such meetings are routine, according to PTI.
On Thursday, December 7, morning, former Rajasthan chief minister and one of the frontrunners for the CM post Vasundhara Raje reached Delhi on Wednesday night but dodged any question on the meeting or the CM pick. “I have come to Delhi to see my daughter-in-law,” she told reporters outside the airport.
Narendra Singh Tomar, a seasoned BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh whose resignation as Union minister was accepted on Thursday, and Baba Balaknath, who is from Rajasthan, also met Shah on Thursday. Both quit Lok Sabha after becoming members of assemblies of their states. Tomar and Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel, who comes from politically significant Other Backward Classes, are seen as possible chief ministerial choices in Madhya Pradesh along with the incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan. In Chhattisgarh, BJP president Arun Sao, an OBC leader, Union minister Gomati Sai and Lata Usendi, both of whom come from Scheduled Tribes, are seen as serious contenders for the top seat.