Rajasthan’s mystery of ‘Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri’ will be answered in the next 24 hours from now. The BJP has called a legislature party meeting on Tuesday when newly elected BJP MLAs will pick their CM.
State BJP chief CP Joshi said on Sunday that the MLAs will meet “soon”. It is learnt that all the three observers, defense minister Rajnath Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Saroj Pandey and BJP’s National General Secretary Vinod Tawde, will reach Jaipur on Tuesday.
Singh had pre-scheduled events for which he had to delay his Rajasthan visit by a few days. On Sunday, he inaugurated a 10-foot-tall Gandhi statue near Delhi’s Rajghat. On Saturday, he was in Mumbai where he was attending a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) excellence award ceremony.
The two people, who were being considered for the CM post, have opted out. Earlier, CM candidate from Tijara Mahant Balaknath posted a message on X (formerly Twitter), saying he “has much to learn”. Former Rajya Sabha MP who was fielded from Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur Kirodi Lal Meena has also stated that he is “not in any CM race”.
Former CM Vasundhara Raje, whom many newly elected MLAs continue to meet at her residence to show support, remains a formidable leader for the top post. It is still unclear what was communicated to her on a recent late-night meeting between her and party president JP Nadda.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of nearly 45 MLAs reportedly visiting Raje since Monday, with some openly expressing support for her. MLAs Ramswaroop Lamba and Kalicharan Saraf said openly that they support Raje as the next CM. The meeting also took place on the same day when BJP MLA Lalit Meena’s father alleged that his son and five other MLAs were kept at a resort by Singh, sending out alarm bells in Delhi. Even on Sunday, a few MLAs went and met Raje. While the BJP has gone for the gen-next with 59-year-old Vishnu Deo Sai in Chhattisgarh, it remains to be seen whether the BJP will brave such a decision in Rajasthan on Tuesday.
Few names like former Princess and former MP Diya Kumari, who won with more than 70,000 votes from Jaipur’s Vidhyadhar Nagar, and former Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore who managed to win the tough Jhotwara seat at the outskirts of Jaipur, are also been in circulation for a while. Rathore is a Rajput — a community that is now angry at the murder of Kari Sena Chief. He also has administrative capabilities.
Meanwhile, the BJP also wants to wrap up the CM candidate early for two reasons — the first being Congress’s Manikam Tagore’s dig at the party for delays, and second is the rush to complete the swearing-in ceremony before the inauspicious ‘Malmas’, which starts from December 16.
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