The BJP leadership has declared the new face for Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Bhajan Lal Sharma has been appointed the Chief Minister of Rajasthan for the period 2023-2028. The BJP won 115 out of 199 seats in Rajasthan securing a clear majority in terms of number of seats. The number of votes, however, was a close difference of 2.16%, with Congress managing 39.53% of the votes while BJP garnering 41.69% votes.

Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa have been appointed the Deputy Chief Ministers of Rajasthan. Ex-Chief Minister Vasundhar Raje proposed the name of Bhajan Lal Sharma in the meeting of the MLAs, which was seconded and supported unanimously. Caste Engineering model has been applied to Rajasthan as well. Bhajan Lal is a Brahmin, Diya Kumari a Kshatriya and Prem Chand Bairwa belongs to the Scheduled Caste.

After springing surprises in both Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP secured landslide victories in the 2023 Assembly Elections, all eyes were on Rajasthan, to see if the BJP pulls another rabbit out of the box. Caste engineering as well as planning for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 have been the two benchmarks, based on which the decision for Rajasthan Chief Minister was taken.

After hectic meetings and transit of leaders between Jaipur and Delhi over the whole of last week, as well as the appointment of observers head by senior leader Rajnath Singh, the announcement of the Chief Minister of Rajasthan was taken this evening at 4:20PM. This was the longest period taken for announcing the name of the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh met all the MLAs one-to-one before the joint meeting of the MLAs at 4pm.

Chhattisgarh

Senior Tribal leader and former Union Minister, 59 yr old Vishnu Deo Sai, who was also the BJP President in Chhatisgarh three times, was elected at the top post in Chhatisgarh. 54 MLAs met the central observers in the afternoon on 11 December and Vishnu Sai's name was proposed by former CM Raman Singh and seconded by senior leaders Brijmohan Agrawal and BJP state chief Arun Sao. Sao was also asked to resign from the Lok Sabha after securing victory from the Lormi Assembly seat.

Madhya Pradesh

Shivraj Chauhan, the ex-Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, who was credited with the BJPs victory in MP, was one of the candidates for CM in MP once again, but the BJP sprand another surprise by naming Mohan Yadav as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for the period 2023-28. Shivraj, Prahlad Singh and Narendra Singh Tomar were the other three contenders for the post. Yadav is a member of the OBC Ahir community and has a strong RSS background, which seems to be the main reason for his being appointed Madhya Pradesh Chief.

Chief Ministers of Rajasthan

XX is the 25th Chief Minister of Rajasthan since 1949, if the name of Haribhau Upadhyay is excluded. Haribhau was the Chief Minister of the State of Ajmer from 1952 till 1956. The longest serving Chief Minister of Rajasthan was Mohan Lal Sukhadia who belonged to Udaipur. He was Chief Minister from November 1954 for a period of 12 years and 120 days before imposition of President's Rule in March 1967 for 44 days and then Sukhadia continued from April 1967 till July 1971. In sum, Sukhadia was the Chief Minister of Rajasthan for a period of 5,967 days. The shortest tenure was Hira Lal Devpura, who was Chief Minister for a period of 15 days. The outgoing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was at the top post for a period of 5,478 days across three sessions, viz. 1998-2003, 2008-2013 and 2018-2023.

Bhajan Lal Sharma will lead the BJP government from Rajasthan. Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa will be the Deputy Chief Ministers of Rajasthan.