Veterans move aside, the dark horses are here

Three states, three new chief ministers.

This is not something political parties dare to experiment with and more so when there are seasoned and experienced veterans breathing down your neck and pressurising you day and night for the top job.

But the BJP to brass has done it for whatever cold political calculations they may have in mind.

Two days ago, they announced Vishnu Deo Sai, a tribal leader, as the CM designate for heavily tribal dominated Chhattisgarh which many felt, was a ‘thanksgiving’ by the saffronists for the good performance the party scored in tribal dominated seats in the Assembly polls.

There was some consolation for heavyweight and former CM Raman Singh, who was nominated for the Assembly Speaker’s post.

Then came the big shock from Madhya Pradesh where everyone had expected four-time CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan to land the top post again. Chouhan is no pushover - he was a potential contender for the PM’s post in 2014 but had to eventually give way to then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

He is also considered close to the RSS but nothing seems to have worked this time with the BJP going for a generational change by making Chouhan’s higher education minister and OBC leader Mohan Yadav the new MP CM.

How the BJP accommodates Chouhan, who still enjoys huge support in the state, remains to be seen.

Though the former CM has made it clear that he would rather die than go to Delhi and beg for a post, he would no doubt be biding his time before making opportune moves to prove that he continues to be the tallest BJP leader in the state, whether he is CM or not.

And with the Lok Sabha polls due in four months, the snub for Chouhan is sure to weigh on voters’ minds as they trudge to the polling booths.

On Tuesday, the biggest quake of them all came from Rajasthan where the BJP sidelined former CM Vasundhara Raje, Union ministers Gajendra Shekhawat and Arjun Ram Meghwal and picked a first-time MLA, Bhajan Lal Sharma for CM.

The party also played the caste card to the hilt choosing Diya Kumari of the Jaipur royal family and daughter of the venerable Sawai Bhavani Singh as Deputy CM which came as some solace for the royal, who had set her eyes on the CM chair like many others.

And to make sure that it has the Dalits on its side when the Lok Sabha polls are here, the party made Dalit leader Prem Chand Bhairwa Deputy CM.

Shrewd political calculations no doubt, remarked many as the BJP went about getting its caste equations right in the Hindi heartland with merit and experience tossed aside.

It remains to be seen if the three CM designates will be able to tide over the dissatisfaction which is but natural when many senior leaders waiting in the wings, are given short shrift.

Or has the party walked into a political abyss by dumping so many seniors on the back bench, preferring political lightweights? Only time will tell.

There is a lesson in this for the Opposition Congress; the party had stuck to veterans like Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan and Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh in MP who dominated the poll campaigns too. But it did not work in either state.

Interestingly the BJP did not name CM choices for any of the three states and this policy seems to have fetched it rich dividends. Would Congress fortunes have been different if the party had let the younger lot of leaders assume the leadership in these states?

Could Sachin Pilot as the party’s mascot in Rajasthan and a younger leader in MP, helped change the electoral fortunes in favour of the Congress.

It’s too late to change poll results but a bit of brainstorming could always help in a course correction.