BJP'S CM SELECTION IN 3 STATES FOCUSED AT 2024 ELECTIONS

The BJP’s choice of three chief ministers from different social sections in the heartland states gives an insight into the party’s big plan for the Lok Sabha battle that critically hinges on mastering the caste matrix.

- RAHUL CHABBRA

By selecting Mohan Yadav, an OBC, to be the new CM in Madhya Pradesh and picking tribal leader, Vishnu Deo Sai, to be the CM in Chhattisgarh and Brahmin face Bhajan Lal Sharma as Rajasthan CM, the BJP has shown its reliance on caste/class arithmetic and the party thinktank’s sensitivity towards the regional spread of different communities and castes.

While the party seems clear about treating key Hindi heartland states – including UP, MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Bihar – as one bloc of electors, it is also mindful of the influence that regional icons – in this case the three new CMs belonging to different social sections – may have across the belt on being projected as faces of their respective community.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to pick Bhajan Lal Sharma, a state BJP general secretary, as the new Chief Minister not only brings the party closer to Brahmin voters in Rajasthan and other Hindi-belt states but also energises the cadre ahead of the Lok Sabha election as it again sets an example that a common worker of the party can also rise to the top post.

Interestingly, the new chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were also both general secretaries of their state BJP units before being elevated to the CM’s post. The choice of Sharma as CM Rajasthan is visibly a master stroke to strengthen BJP’s hold over the caste matrix, without diluting the national-level agenda of “Modi ki guarantee”, development, patriotism and Hindutva for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.