Rajasthan assembly election: BJP may follow Madhya Pradesh playbook, field Union ministers

The elections for the 200-member Rajasthan assembly have to be held by November.

The BJP, which is looking to wrest power from the Congress in Rajasthan, may field union ministers as well as Lok Sabha members in the assembly elections in a repeat of its poll plan in Madhya Pradesh.

According to reports, BJP chief JP Nadda and senior party leader and union home minister Amit Shah held night-long discussions in Jaipur on the party's strategy for the Rajasthan assembly polls, which have to be held by November.

The meeting, which began at a Jaipur hotel late on September 27, continued till 2 am, party insiders said.

The shortlisted candidates could include Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Shekhawat and Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, the Indian Express reported.

Moneycontrol couldn’t verify the report independently.

The BJP has fielded three union cabinet ministers — Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste — and four other members of Parliament for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, which are expected to be held along with those for Rajasthan.

Telangana and Chhattisgarh are the other two states where elections will be held over the next few months.

The Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Bharat Rashtra Samithi, formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi, in Telangana.

Analysts see the BJP’s decision to file the so-called party big guns in Madhya Pradesh as a move to leave the field wide open to chose a chief minister if the party retains power.

Unlike Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the BJP is yet to name candidates for the 200-member Rajasthan assembly.

Also read: Decoding BJP’s reliance on cabinet ministers

Vasundhara Raje, 70, a two-term chief minister, is widely seen as the BJP's tallest leader in the state but is not clear if she will be named the CM candidate.

Also read: Gehlot kicks off Mission 2030 to combat BJP's development plank

The BJP, in a break from the past, may not name chief ministerial candidates in this round of state elections, reports have said.

In 2018, the Raje-led government was voted out after BJP could win only 73 seats. The Congress, whose tally of 99 increased to 101 after two independents joined the party, returned to power with Ashok Gehlot as the chief minister in keeping with the state’s tradition of not voting back the ruling party.