Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Springing the third surprise in as many days as it picked up younger and relatively unknown faces to lead the three states it won in recent Vidhan Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced that Bhajan Lal Sharma will be the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
Sharma, 56, is a first-time MLA from Sanganer Assembly constituency in Jaipur. A BJP General Secretary, he recently defeated Pushpendra Bhardwaj of Congress by 48,081 votes.
Diya Kumari (Vidyadhar Nagar MLA) and Prem Chand Bairwa (Dudu MLA) will be the Deputy CMs, while Vasudev Devnani (Ajmer North MLA) will be the Assembly Speaker.
The announcement came nine days after the BJP registered a resounding victory in the Assembly elections, overthrowing the ruling Congress, led by Ashok Gehlot.
Sharma’s appointment marks an end to a 25-year-old trend where the state only witnessed Gehlot and senior BJP leader Vasundhara Raje taking turns to rule the state every five years.
Sharma was named the new CM-designate after the BJP Legislature Party meeting in Jaipur, in the presence of the party’s three central observers led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The two other observers were Vinod Tawde and Saroj Pandey.
At the meeting, Raje, who was seated next to Rajnath Singh, proposed Sharma’s name which was accepted by party MLAs.
Sharma holds a Master’s degree in politics from Rajasthan University, and has assets worth Rs 1.4 crore, the media reported.
While Sharma is Brahmin by caste, the BJP had named tribal leader Vishnu Deo Sai (59) as Chhattisgarh CM and Mohan Yadav (58), an OBC, as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.
As in MP and CG, the BJP had not projected any CM candidate in Rajasthan also.
Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Ashwini Vaishnav were among the frontrunners for the post.
The BJP won 115 seats out of the 199 that went to polls. Polling was postponed in one constituency due to the death of a candidate.