Bhajanlal Sharma in Rajasthan joins BJP's new club of CMs in their 50s

Rajasthan CM elect Bhajanlal Sharma. (Photo: Bhajanlal Sharma/Facebook)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lived up to the intense speculation of surprises with the party's chief ministerial choices, wrapping up the exercise with first-term MLA Bhajanlal Sharma in Rajasthan. The BJP's two deputy chief ministerial choices – Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa – complete the party's careful focus on caste equation to get the poll ready for the Lok Sabha elections.

With the Rajasthan appointment, the BJP has fashioned a comprehensive response to the caste census chorus of the Opposition. It has picked up tribal, an OBC, and upper caste faces as chief ministers of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan respectively.

Why Sharma, Diya Kumari & Bairwa

Having won the Sanganer Assembly seat for the first time, CM-elect Sharma gained the endorsement of the party brass for his organisational skills. Sharma, 56, joins the club of 50s – which also includes Chhattisgarh (Vishnu Deo Sai, 59) and Madhya Pradesh (Mohan Yadav, 58).

With this, the BJP has made its intent clear that the party is expediting a leadership transition to give the new faces at least 10 years to helm the states. This writer had earlier written about BJP’s intent to give the chosen CM faces ample time to lead their respective states.

The BJP has also made it clear that the party is scripting social engineering by accommodating aspirations of caste groups. Sharma is a Brahmin, and the caste leaders had been lamenting in hushed voices of not being picked up for top jobs in states.

Diya Kumari, 52, hails from an erstwhile royal family, and her choice is a clear attempt of the BJP to groom young leaders from princely lineages as per the political tradition of Rajasthan. In that regard, she will inherit the political legacy of former state chief minister Vasundhara Raje in the state.

Read : BJP's CM-designate Bhajan Lal Sharma meets Guv, stakes claim to form govt

Prem Chandra Bairwa, 54, belongs to the scheduled caste community, which has influence in almost 60 of the Assembly seats in Rajasthan. With caste equation in place, the BJP has clearly accorded preference to the party leaders with strong organisational backgrounds.

Curtains For Raje?

It's curtains now on the active political career of Raje, 70. The party would like her to take up the role of a mentor. The BJP had conveyed to her the message that the party is now working on a leadership transition as a roadmap for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.

With the BJP firing up the ambitions of the party workers by picking up younger leaders for the CMs in states, Raje possibly sensed the direction in which the political winds were blowing and that she may not retain the loyalties of MLAs belonging to her faction if she created roadblocks.

CM-elect Sharma has served as the party's general secretary in the Rajasthan unit and gained attention of the senior party leaders for his street power and forceful articulation of the Hindutva cause, as well as leading protests in the state against the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government. Interestingly, the Chhattisgarh and MP CM-designates Vishnu Deo Sai and Mohan Yadav are also in the same mould as Sharma, and known as combative leaders.

Over to the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign now. Meanwhile, the voters of Rajasthan will hold Sharma to the party's promises of addressing the state's law and order challenges.

Manish Anand is a senior Delhi-based journalist. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.