Vishnu Deo Sai is C'garh CM, MP CM likely today

NT Correspondent

New Delhi| Raipur: While the BJP kept the many chief ministerial aspirants in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh waiting even a week after winning the state elections, it appointed Vishnu Deo Sai, a prominent tribal face of the party in Chhattisgarh, as chief minister after a meeting of newly-elected MLAs on Sunday.

The BJP had won 54 seats in the 90-member Assembly in the recently held polls, while the Congress was reduced to 35 seats from the 68 it won in 2018.

The BJP, which had suffered a huge setback in tribal-dominated seats in 2018, put up a good show this time, winning 17 of the 29 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP's newly-elected MLAs will meet on Monday to elect the leader of the legislative party.

The party leadership has already appointed central observers for both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. ai started his political career as a village sarpanch and rose to become a Union minister and multiple-time Lok Sabha MP besides getting important organisational roles.

The newlyelected MLA from Jashpur district in the Surguja region perfectly fits in the BJP's scheme of things since Adivasis account for nearly 32 per cent of the state's population and are the second most dominant social group after OBCs.

Starting his political career as the sarpanch of an obscure village, Sai rose through the ranks and became a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first Council of Ministers after the BJP formed its full majority government at the Centre in 2014.

In MP, the BJP has won 163 seats in the 230-member Assembly, leaving the Congress second with 66 seats.

However, it had not project a CM face, with the campaign relying heavily on the mass appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party's central observers are Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, OBC Morcha head K Laxman and secretary Asha Lakra.

This is for the third time since 2004 that the BJP has sent central observers to MP. For mer CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Union ministers Prahlad Patel and Narendra Tomar, Indore heavyweight Kailash Vijayvargiya, state unit chief V D Sharma and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia are being talked about as front-runners for the post.

Meanwhile in Rajasthan, supporters of former CM Vasundhara Raje continued to lobby on her behalf though the party had not projected her as the CM face during the polls. Other aspirants include Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Diya Kumari.