Rajasthan Assembly Elections: In Rajasthan, the BJP has clearly made a strategy to enter the electoral fray without a CM face. BJP is preparing to give tickets to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Rajvardhan Singh Rathore, and Diya Kumari in the assembly elections. The BJP’s top leadership wants to establish a new leadership in Rajasthan, for which it is promoting new leaders of the party.
BJP is making every possible effort to return to power in Rajasthan. Like Madhya Pradesh, in Rajasthan, BJP has prepared the outline to field its Union Ministers and MPs in the assembly elections. BJP had first tried this formula in the elections of West Bengal and now a strategy has been made to try it in the elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.
Efforts to garner Thakur-Dalit votes also
According to political analysts, Shekhawat is presenting himself as an alternative to Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan. Not only this, the BJP’s top leadership is also promoting Arjun Ram Meghwal a lot, and now if he is fielded in the election, then it will definitely send a big political message. Along with this, the BJP can also try to attract Thakur and Dalit votes of the state. The BJP’s top leadership wants to establish a new leadership in Rajasthan, for which it is promoting new leaders of the party.
In the Hindi heartland of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, the BJP will not declare the chief ministerial face before the elections. This is the first time in two decades that the BJP is contesting the elections in these states without a CM face. BJP is currently out of power in 2 out of three states.
For the last two decades, Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan have been the undisputed faces of the BJP. After 2003, the reins of BJP in Chhattisgarh have been with Raman Singh, but for the first time here too the party has kept the field open for the leadership ship.
The candidate list of Madhya Pradesh has further strengthened the intention of collective leadership of the BJP. The party has made three big contenders for the post of CM, Narendra Tomar, Kailash Vijayvargiya, and Prahlad Patel, candidates in the assembly elections, while the ticket of current Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has not been announced yet.
Similar formulas are said to be implemented in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Here too there is speculation that big contenders for the post of CM will contest the elections.
Apart from Vasundhara Raje, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Om Mathur are big contenders for the post of CM in Rajasthan. Similarly, in Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, Saroj Pandey, Arun Sao, and Ramvichar Netam are the main contenders.
Why is BJP, which has been doing politics in the name of face since its inception, not declaring CM face in these three states? This is being discussed the most.
Madhya Pradesh- Suspense on Shivraj’s future
64-year-old Shivraj Singh Chouhan became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2005 after a huge upheaval. Pramod Mahajan had vetoed his name at that time. After becoming the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj changed the direction of BJP’s politics.
In 2008, the BJP came to power in Madhya Pradesh for the second time under the leadership of Shivraj. After this, their influence extended to Delhi and Nagpur. Madhya Pradesh is especially the political laboratory of BJP and Sangh. Jana Sangh formed the government here for the first time in 1977.
Shivraj also took advantage of the Sangh and was successful in sending the leaders of his counterpart in the BJP to Delhi. First Prabhat Jha, then Narendra Tomar, and later Kailash Vijayvargiya started doing Delhi politics because of Shivraj.
However, the BJP’s defeat in 2018 definitely affected Shivraj’s existence, but soon Shivraj became active again. After the alleged Operation Lotus in 2020, Shivraj Singh Chauhan again became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
After the Karnataka defeat, a statement from Shivraj was in the news. He had told the BJP leaders that Shivraj is here, forget about Karnataka-Farnataka. However, with the elections approaching, the way the BJP high command has taken decisions has increased the suspense over Shivraj’s future.
Rajasthan: Vasundhara Raje in difficult times?
After Bhairo Singh Shekhawat became the Vice President, BJP’s politics in Rajasthan started revolving around Vasundhara Raje. Vasundhara also became the Chief Minister twice by bringing BJP to power. In 2013, the BJP had used all its strength to bring Vasundhara to power.
However, after 2018, BJP’s internal politics took a 360-degree U-turn. In 2018, the slogan ‘Modi Tujhse Bair Nahi but Vasundhara Teri Khair Nahi’ was raised loudly within the party, which gradually spread throughout Rajasthan.
After the defeat in 2018, Vasundhara was made the national vice president of BJP. However, Vasundhara was not given the charge of any state. Before the Rajasthan elections, Vasundhara’s supporters were hopeful that she would get a big post, but now this has not happened.
During a recent rally in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had advised the workers to keep only the lotus flower in mind. Experts say that the situation of chaos in Rajasthan has put Vasundhara’s politics in trouble.
Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh’s condition is also not good
Former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh is also active in the election year, but his role is not clear yet. Under the leadership of Raman Singh, BJP lost the elections badly in 2018. After this, the party also canceled the ticket of his son in the Lok Sabha elections.
Raman Singh is currently holding the post of National Vice President of BJP, but he also does not have any big work. Like Vasundhara Raje, she too has not been given the charge of any state. Chhattisgarh assembly elections are considered very important for Raman Singh.
However, the party does not seem to be paying much attention to him. News agency IANS quoted BJP sources as saying that the BJP high command in Chhattisgarh has already decided on the change, hence other leaders are being put forward instead of Raman Singh.
2 statements, which gave rise to speculations
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jaipur – There is no leader bigger than the organization. The identity and pride of all of us is only the lotus flower. The workers should take only the lotus flower among the people.
- Amit Shah in Bhopal- Currently, Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the Chief Minister of the party. The party will decide what happens next. Why have you (journalist) started doing the work of our party, that is the work of our party.
Why is BJP not declaring the Chief Minister’s face?
For the first time in 1989, BJP contested the UP elections with Chehra in the lead. The party made Kalyan Singh its face. In all the earlier elections the party used to contest elections without a face. Kalyan Singh’s face proved lucky for the party.
For the first time, BJP won 57 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. After this, barring a few elections, it has been the tradition of BJP to declare its face before the elections. In such a situation, the question arises as to why the face is not being declared in the elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The party wants to maintain a situation of confusion
Senior journalist Santosh Kumar, who has been covering BJP for a long time, says – the party wants to maintain a situation of confusion in the election states so that no factionalism happens before the elections. This strategy of the BJP has been successful in states like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan are being considered very sensitive for BJP because Lok Sabha elections are to be held immediately after the assembly elections. Within BJP, there are many big leaders in all three states, who are very strong in their respective areas. Are.
This time Congress is also in a much stronger position than before in all three states. Therefore, BJP does not want to take any risk by declaring the CM face.
Recently, in a rally in Madhya Pradesh, Amit Shah had talked about contesting elections in the name of workers. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are cadre-based states for BJP. The party organization here is in a very strong position, which the party’s high command is trying to capitalize on.
Preparation to end the dominance of Advani-era leaders
English newspaper The Telegraph quoted BJP sources as saying that it wants to end the dominance of Advani-era leaders in the party. The biggest contenders for Chief Ministership in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh are still counted within the BJP as Chief Ministers of the Advani era.
In 2013, Lal Krishna Advani openly supported Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Amit Shah’s enmity with Vasundhara Raje is also well known.
Since the rise of Modi within BJP, Advani’s camp gradually became sidelined in BJP. Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha of Advani group have left the party. Murli Manohar Joshi is currently a member of the Margdarshak Mandal. However, this committee has not met for the last 8 years.
The last meeting of the Margdarshak Mandal was held at Lal Krishna Advani’s house in 2015.
Strategy to give opportunity to new leadership
Talking to The Telegraph, top BJP leaders say – This message has been given in all three states that the Chief Minister will be chosen by the Parliamentary Board. The leader said that after winning the elections, it is possible that Vasundhara-Shivraj may become Chief Minister, but this is not 100 percent correct.
After winning the elections in Assam, the BJP had given the post of Chief Minister from Sarbananda Sonowal to Himanta Biswa Sarma. The party had talked about this experiment to give a chance to the new leadership. The party high command has also experimented with changing the Chief Minister in Gujarat and Uttarakhand.
Experts say that the BJP is now gradually working on the strategy of showing the best to the high command like Congress. Because, the members of the parliamentary board from which it is being said to choose the CM, most of the members of that board have only 19 years of political experience except Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje, and Raman Singh.
According to the Telegraph, many big leaders of the party do not agree with this strategy. He believes that this strategy can backfire and increase factionalism in the states. Anyway, the BJP is already struggling with internal factionalism in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
