As race for Delhi CM heats up, chorus grows in BJP ranks to pick Jat, Dalit face

As the race intensifies to select the Delhi Chief Minister, chorus has been growing within saffron ranks to appoint a Jat or a Dalit leader to the top post.

With the BJP bound to weigh caste equations and other exigencies ahead of the crucial Bihar Assembly elections later this year, leaders privately told The Tribune today that a Jat or a Scheduled Caste leader could be high on the priority list when the final call on the CM is taken.

Influential groups

• Jat: 11 of the 48 BJP MLAs in Delhi belong to the Jat community
• Dalit: The BJP, for the first time in 10 years, won 4 of the 12 SC seats in Delhi

“Jats comprise a sizeable chunk of voters in Haryana, western UP, Delhi and Rajasthan and they are yet to receive their due. With the BJP winning 90 per cent of the Jat-dominated seats in Delhi, it remains to be seen if the party will reward the community,” said a BJP insider.

In Delhi, 11 of the 48 BJP MLAs belong to the Jat community. An equally strong case, however, emerges for a Dalit CM as the BJP won from Scheduled Caste segments for the first time in a decade, bagging four of the 12 seats. The results signalled a shift in Dalit allegiance from AAP despite the BR Ambedkar row, which party chief Arvind Kejriwal successfully spun into an electoral issue.

On why Jats and Dalits could be accorded priority while finalising the CM and ministers, a BJP leader said none of the incumbent CMs in the party-ruled states belonged to these two segments.

Among the current BJP CMs, Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Nayab Saini (Haryana), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), Pramod Sawant (Goa) and Manik Saha (Tripura) are OBCs while Yogi Adityanath (UP) and Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand) are Thakurs. Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam) and Bhajan Lal Sharma (Rajasthan) are Brahmins while Pema Khandu (Arunachal), Mohan Majhi (Odisha) and Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh) are tribals.

The party may look to strike some balance this time, said sources. In Delhi, the BJP swept a majority of the seats dominated by Jats. This happened despite Kejriwal wooing the community and daring the BJP to include it among OBCs. The BJP, however, managed to beat the narrative that it was anti-Jat. Of Delhi’s 360 villages, 225 Jat-majority areas rallied behind the BJP.

The Tribune has also learnt that Home Minister Amit Shah personally called up some prominent Jat leaders after the Delhi poll results and expressed gratitude for their support, which swung crucial votes in the BJP’s favour.

Party’s decisions to field former CM Sahib Singh Verma’s son Parvesh Verma, a Jat face, against Kejriwal in New Delhi; inducting AAP ex-minister Kailash Gahlot ahead of the elections and ensuring Shah’s positive meeting with village leaders a week before the polling were all strategic calls that powered the BJP’s win. That said, sources today cited five probables for the CM’s race — Parvesh Verma, Rekha Gupta, Ashish Sood, Satish Upadhyay and Shikha Roy.

The BJP will soon appoint two central observers to oversee the election of the BJP legislature party leader and a meeting of MLAs is likely on Sunday. There is, however, no official word about the meeting, with party MLAs saying “they would know of it just ahead of the scheduled time”. The oath-taking ceremony is likely on February 19 or 20.