Will it be Shivraj Singh Chouhan or Narendra Singh Tomar in Madhya Pradesh? Could it be Prahlad Singh Patel or even Jyotiraditya Scindia? Will Raman Singh be back in Chhattisgarh or Arun Sao will get the top post? Renuka Singh or may be O. P. Chaudhary?
After historic wins in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the suspense on the names of new BJP chief ministers for both the states is likely to be over soon. A week after the results; the meetings of the newly elected legislative parties for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have been convened for December 10 and 11 respectively in the presence of central observers appointed by the party.
The Chhattisgarh BJP legislative party will meet at noon on Sunday at the Raipur BJP office in presence of observers – central ministers Arjun Munda and Sarbanand Sonowal and party national general secretary Dushyant Gautam. Party state election in-charge Om Mathur and co-in-charges Mansukh Mandaviya and Nitin Nabin would also be present at the meeting, a state BJP communiqué said.
Meanwhile, BJP sources confirmed that the Madhya Pradesh legislative party meeting will be held at 4 pm on December 11 at Bhopal. Central observers – Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, OBC morcha national president K. Laxman and national secretary Asha Lakda, who is a tribal leader, will be present along with state BJP in-charges.
Long drawn suspense on CMs
Despite huge wins, the BJP is taking its time in naming new CMs in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The party took six days to appoint central observers – a key step in the selection process of CMs, though the formal action is to be taken by the legislative parties – meaning the group of newly elected MLAs.
As the CM selection process lingered for the week, media, political watchers and even common people had field day making speculations on the names. Despite it being well known that the final decision on selection for CM posts rests with the very top leadership of the BJP; a lot of assumptions were made.
For Madhya Pradesh – the top runners for the post remained the incumbent CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel who recently resigned from their membership of parliament and union ministry portfolios after being elected to state assembly, union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, state BJP president V.D. Sharma as well as national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.
The fact that for the last two decades, the BJP never took this long a time to name the new CM after winning a majority in the house, gave the speculators more fuel.
In Chhattisgarh, the contenders for top post include ex-CM Raman Singh, state president Arun Sao, tribal leaders Renuka Singh (who resigned union ministry portfolio) and Ramvichar Netam and bureaucrat turned politician O.P. Chaudhary. There were a lot of talks that the BJP leadership might go for a tribal CM this time, but then the rumours died down. The name of senior leader and Maharashtra governor Ramesh Bais was also discussed in the process.
With the legislative party meetings scheduled now, the time for speculation will soon be over and the central Indian states will get their new CMs.