The Bharatiya Janata Party, in a surprise but strategic move, picked new faces for the chief ministership in the three States of Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, sidelining top contenders and party stalwarts.
Bhajanlal Sharma was named CM for Rajasthan, Mohan Yadav for Madhya Pradesh and Vishnu Deo Sai for Chhattisgarh. While many within the party claim that it is a plan to break political stereotypes and groom new leadership, there seems to be one common thread in all three choices -- the RSS-ABVP link, raising questions about whether their affiliation tilted the scales in their favour. The other common observation is a calculative pick from each community ” one each from tribal, OBC and general category, again indicating that the BJP leadership has looked at this through the electoral prism with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Thirdly, these choices will not only diffuse the Congress attack on the BJP of being an anti-OBC and pro-upper caste party but could also be used by the BJP effectively to leverage votes.
The BJP has done a delicate balancing act on the caste factor in Rajasthan by appointing Diya Kumari, a member of Jaipur’s erstwhile royal family as the deputy chief minister and balancing it with Prem Chand Bairva, a Dalit leader, as the second deputy CM.
The BJP high command has also made a strong statement in this decision-making. In the normal course, there would have been resentment and internal discord because party stalwarts who have been projected as torch-bearers in their respective states were being sidelined to make way for new faces and first-time legislators. Top leaders like 4-time CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP, Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan and Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh had to step aside to make way for the new brigade in respective states.
The BJP stage-managed the transition so well that it was Raje who proposed the name of Bhajan Lal for the chair and even presented him with a bouquet. And it was outgoing CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, another top contender in Madhya Pradesh, who proposed the name of Yadav and also posted on X names of his two deputies ” Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda.
The BJP high command has tick-marked all the right boxes and has approached the elections and subsequent appointments of CMs and their deputies with specific goals in mind. The party is leaving no stone unturned and has been setting the field keeping electoral gains in mind as Narendra Modi pads up to walk into the electoral arena once again.
The picks in the three states are indicative of BJP’s trajectory in electoral politics and the balance it seeks to bring between outreach, caste and affiliations. The developments also suggest that the BJP wears a RSS halo that becomes decisive in crunch cases. It is visible in Goa too, and the recent replacement of a minority community minister with another from the same community suggests that the RSS has a major say in the numerics of BJP's electoral politics.
It is to be seen how the new faces take the seniors along and work as cohesive units in respective States, because in politics sometimes the undercurrents are not instantly visible on the surface. The success of this script depends on how well the new and the old navigate the swells and waves of politics in the years ahead.
