The suspense over who will be the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh continued even as the party is likely to pick observers to select the candidates for the respective states.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered resounding wins in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the recent Assembly elections, leaving Congress languishing at a distant second spot. But the BJP is yet to announce the names of chief ministers in the three states even as speculations and suspense grow. In all three states, the BJP fought the elections without naming any chief ministerial candidate.
On Thursday, BJP national president JP Nadda was seen leaving the residence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital after a key meeting. Earlier in Bhopal, while saying that the final decision on the CMs for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan would be taken on December 10, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya refrained from disclosing whether the party will select leaders from among the newly elected MLAs or bring in outsiders.
Sources say that the BJP will be picking three observers for the three states. The observers might be tasked with the duty of overseeing meetings of the newly elected MLAs in the three states, where they will pick their leaders.
Even as feverish speculations over the BJP’s CM picks in these three states continued, former Rajasthan chief minister and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje, on Thursday, called on Nadda at the latter’s residence in the national capital. Vasundhara Raje, a two-time chief minister; Diya Kumari, who has been elected MLA from Vidyadhar Nagar; Mahat Balak Nath, who won from the Tijara constituency; and Rajyavarardhan Singh Rathore, who won from the Jhotwara constituency, are believed to be among the top contenders for the post in Rajasthan.
The BJP swept the Hindi heartland on the counting day for four states that polled for their assemblies last month. With its stunning mandates in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the BJP stumped not just their rivals but also some pollsters who had predicted tight races in these states. The BJP, which had been battling close to 20 years of incumbency in Madhya Pradesh, won a resounding mandate bagging 163 seats while the Congress finished a distant second at 66 seats. In Rajasthan, the vote count painted a starkly different picture to what some of the pollsters had predicted, with the BJP poised to form the government, winning 115 seats, and the Congress trailing at 69 seats. Of the 90 assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh, the BJP bagged 54 while the Congress won 35.