BJP high command looking at new faces as CMs in MP, Rajasthan & Chhattisgarh?

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: Veteran BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan is unlikely to get another term as Chief Minister, despite having led the party to a spectacular victory in the assembly election, results of which were announced Sunday, reports The Print.

Multiple leaders in Delhi BJP told The Print that the party high command is not inclined to give Chouhan — the incumbent CM at the time of last month’s elections — a fifth term in office and is looking at other options.

“He (Chouhan) has served [as CM] for over 18 years and delivered, too. But new faces also need to be given a chance and we need to groom them. These results have given us a chance to make a shift. There are many considerations, as Chouhan is a tall leader and comes from the OBC [other backward class] community. So, all these factors will have to be weighed in before a final decision is taken,” a top BJP functionary told ThePrint.

The functionary added that Prahlad Singh Patel, union minister and OBC leader, was emerging as the front-runner among contenders to the CM’s chair.

Relatively young at 64, Chouhan was being seen in party circles as the natural choice to head the next government after the BJP’s stunning poll victory Sunday.

BJP leaders in Delhi also told ThePrint that former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh too were out of the race for the CM’s chair.

In Rajasthan, Raje has been flexing her muscles after the party won 115 of 199 seats.The BJP leadership, however, is learnt to be inclined more towards going for a new CM face in the state.

Union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, MPs Diya Kumari, Rajyavardhan Rathore and C.P. Joshi, and Baba Balaknath — said to be “Rajasthan’s Yogi Adityanath” — are said to be front runners for the post here.

In Chhattisgarh, BJP sources said the high command was looking for a candidate among two tribal leaders — Union minister Renuka Singh and former state BJP chief Vishnu Deo Sai — and two OBC leaders, state BJP president and MP Arun Sao and former IAS officer O.P. Choudhary.

Vasundhara Raje heads to Delhi amid Rajasthan CM suspense

Amid a suspense over the BJP's CM pick for Rajasthan, senior party leader and former CM Vasundhara Raje was headed to New Delhi Wednesday night.

Sources in the Raje camp said she would be meeting the party high command on Thursday.

The development came after nearly 60 of the newly elected BJP MLAs met her at her residence.