How the BJP Forced Rajasthan’s, MP’s, and Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Front-Runners to Take a Backseat

When it comes to the BJP, the just-ended Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh were replete with surprises. The party fielded MPs, including Union Ministers in state elections, and released its lists of candidates even before the Election Commission released the voting dates.

Many victors who thought they were “CM material” were humiliated by the election results, which placed them in the position of minister under the chief ministership of their much younger colleagues. While a fortunate few have been appointed to cabinet positions, the majority are now just MLAs.

A few names stood out when the 28 MLAs under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s new Madhya Pradesh government took their oath of office on Christmas Day.

The first name is Vijayvargiya Kailash. In 2020, the most significant position in the Sangathan or organization, that of General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was reappointed for a second term. He was in charge of the BJP’s political hierarchy when the group made an effort to win the West Bengal elections in 2021. Under Babulal Gaur and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, he was a minister.

He was reluctant to run in the state elections, but he did not disguise it. “I didn’t want a single person to run for office. “At an election rally, I had only intended to attend public meetings,” he said.

Mohan Yadav, who joined electoral politics only ten years ago in 2013, has forced a politician who likes to flaunt his “been there, done that” mentality to serve as a regular minister.

It’s ironic that this occurred less than a week after Kailash Vijayvargiya warned people not to take him “lightly” and proclaimed himself to be a “bada aadmi” (large person).

Former Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel was another well-known candidate for chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Former member of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Union Council of Ministers, Patel most recently held the position of Minister of Food Processing and Jal Shakti in the Narendra Modi administration. Given that Uma Bharti, Babu Lal Gaur, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the last three chief ministers of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, are OBCs, Patel is an OBC (Lodhi) politician and was thought to be a contender for the chief ministership.

However, as fate would have it, the Union Minister from the Vajpayee period would now work under Mohan Yadav as an MP. Patel decided to just post “MLA – Narsinghpur” on his X (previously Twitter) profile at the time this story was published.

Having served as a key cabinet minister for the Narendra Modi government and leading its Agriculture Ministry, Narendra Singh Tomar is now the Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. This is a significant setback, given that Tomar was first elected as an MLA in 1998 and held this position during both of the Modi administrations.

In Madhya Pradesh, the government of Mohan Yadav has sworn in, but it will probably take a few more days for Bhajan Lal Sharma to create his own in Rajasthan. According to BJP insiders, the identities of the around fifteen MLAs who are expected to be recruited into the Council of Ministers are unknown since the BJP has chosen the chief ministers of all three states.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore would be concerned by the rumors surrounding the names of the candidates for the Rajasthan Council of Ministers, even though Vijayvargiya, Patel, and Tomar can find some comfort in their existing positions.

In PM Modi’s government, the former Jaipur Rural MP held the influential position of Information and Broadcasting Minister. Following his victory in the Assembly election from Jothwara, he was forced to resign from his position as minister. Among the prospective ministers of Rajasthan, his name is absent. Among the names making the rounds among former MPs are Balaknath and Kirodi Lal Meena.

Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Raman Singh are the three previous chief ministers whose fates have already been decided. Even though Singh and Raje are both BJP National Vice-Presidents (albeit both positions are regarded as ceremonial), Singh was chosen to serve as Speaker of the Chhattisgarh Assembly, which is led by the 59-year-old tribal leader Vishnu Deo Sai, who was appointed chief minister.

The erstwhile royal’s displeasure was captured in a viral video that showed Raje being informed of the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s choice in a chit handed over by Rajnath Singh. The “new royal on the block,” Diya Kumari, was chosen Deputy CM, which only made matters worse. In the meanwhile, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is known as “mamaji” in MP, is now just an MLA representing the Budhni seat. Now, everyone is watching to see whether he is transferred to the Center in the unlikely event that Narendra Modi becomes prime minister once again in the next year.

The title character Donnie, who often battled with his identity, spoke this famous line in the legendary film Donnie Darko: “And finally, I looked in the mirror.” I stared through the mirror, not just in it. I noticed a mirror of my ego in that picture.

Several BJP “biggies” were forced to face their egos and quietly swallow it after the Assembly elections.