After big wins in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the BJP has started discussing the names of the chief ministers in these states. Various names were discussed in the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BJP national headquarters.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president JP Nadda, and BJP organisation national general secretary BL Santosh attended the meeting.
The central leadership of the BJP will decide the names of the chief ministers considering the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The focus will be on various factors such as the social engineering and caste equation. Appointing two deputy chief ministers will also be considered.
The BJP will send central observers to these states who will gather the opinion of the newly elected MLAs. In the next two days, the BJP will call meetings of the legislative parties in all three states and elect new leaders of the legislative parties who will meet the governors and stake claims to form the governments.
Prahlad Singh Patel among top contenders in MP
- In Madhya Pradesh, besides, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel and Kailash Vijayvargiya are also considered as main contenders.
- There is talk of keeping Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister until the Lok Sabha elections. After that, if he is brought into central politics, then any of these three leaders may take his place.
- BJP will finalise the name of MP CM after the approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel's claim is considered strong since he belongs to a backward class.
Tribal Dy CM in Chhattisgarh
In Chhattisgarh, former chief minister Raman Singh in the front-runner for the post. The claim of state party president Arun Sao is also strong. If the BJP appoints an OBC as the chief minister, a tribal leader may be appointed as the deputy chief minister.
Two DyCMs in Rajasthan
In Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, Diya Kumari, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and LS speaker Om Birla are strong contenders. It is believed that two deputy chief ministers may be appointed to maintain the caste equation. One of them could be from the Scheduled Caste or a Backward Class.