Bhajan Lal Sharma, first-time legislator, to be Rajasthan CM

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, December 12

Ending the suspense over leadership, the BJP on Tuesday hand-picked first-time MLA and a long-standing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Bhajan Lal Sharma to serve as the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan.

Editorial: BJP’s CM picks

At a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party in Jaipur, former CM Vasundhara Raje, who herself was in the CM race, proposed Sharma’s name, which the MLAs unanimously stamped. The meeting took place in the presence of central BJP observers, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde and BJP-vice president Saroj Pandey.

long association with RSS

• From humble background, Bhajan Lal has long been associated with the RSS
• Was sarpanch of native village before joining the RSS’ student wing ABVP
• Participated in ABVP’s Kashmir march in 1990, 1992; jailed during the Ram Mandir movement

Curtains on Atal era

• With Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Chouhan (MP) losing the race, the BJP has finally pulled curtains on the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee era as none of its CMs now belong to the ex-PM’s period

Time to give back: Shivraj

Outgoing Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the party gave him a lot over 18 years and now it was time for him to give the party back. “The BJP made an ordinary party worker CM for 18 years,” he said.

Sharma (56), contested his first Assembly election from Jaipur’s Sanganer seat this year and won. He is Rajasthan BJP general secretary and belongs to Bharatpur.

Hailing from the Brahmin community that makes up 7 per cent of the state’s population, Sharma will have in his team Vidyadhar Nagar MLA Diya Kumari and Dudu legislator Prem Chand Bairwa as Deputy Chief Ministers.

Diya Kumari just resigned as Rajsamand Lok Sabha MP to serve in the state. She is a two-time MLA and was first fielded in the 2013 Assembly polls from Sawai Madhopur by Vasundhara. Diya hails from the erstwhile Jaipur royalty and is the daughter of Sawai Bhawani Singh, who earned distinction in the 1971 India-Pakistan war as a Lt Colonel and Commanding Officer of the Para Commandos of the 10th Parachute Regiment. A Rajput, Diya (51) is also the only woman to land a position in the power structure of any of the Hindi heartland states the BJP recently won. Like Sharma, Bairwa (54) is also a first-time MLA. He won from Jaipur’s Dudu seat and belongs to the SC segment.

Five-time MLA Vasudev Devnani, a sitting lawmaker from Ajmer-North, has been chosen the Assembly Speaker candidate of the BJP.

Importantly, Sharma, Diya and Bairwa all represent seats in Jaipur, which will now have a pride of place in the state’s power corridor.

With today’s selections, the BJP has finally pulled curtains on the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee period with none of its chief ministers now belonging to the old era.

BJP sources point to four takeaways in the appointments in cow belt states—capacity of the party top brass to take risks; confidence in PM Modi to deliver a third consecutive win for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with or without state stalwarts at the helm; installation of commoner party workers as CMs and Deputy CMs and stamp of the RSS in all CM picks. The absence of women in the top echelons of power is another takeaway with only Diya Kumari becoming Deputy CM among nine appointments of CMs and Deputy CMs across three states and three selections of Assembly speakers.

With the BJP not going with Vasundhara, the country now has only one sitting woman chief minister—Mamata Banerjee of the TMC in West Bengal.

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