Suspense over BJP’s CM picks; ex-MPs too in reckoning

Several Lok Sabha MPs including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Singh Patel on Wednesday handed over their resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla after Bharatiya Janata Paty reportedly decided to move elected parliamentarians to bigger roles in the states.

The BJP announced that 12 MPs, who have been recently elected to state assemblies will now quit Lok Sabha, amid speculation that they will get new roles in the newly elected state governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

BJP president J P Nadda accompanied 10 of the MPs as they tendered their resignations from Parliament. Two others, Union Minister Renuka Singh and Mahant Balaknath, also quit their membership as parliamentarians.

Other MPs who quit are Rakesh Singh, Udya Pratap Singh and Riti Pathak from Madhya Pradesh; Kirodi Lal Meena, Diya Kumari and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Rajasthan and Gomati Sai and Arun Sao from Chhattisgarh.

The move suggests that the party leadership may bring in new faces at the helm in all three states. Senior leaders, however, declined to comment on such a development.

All except Meena are Lok Sabha members. Meena is a Rajya Sabha member.

For the unversed, Tomar is a cabinet minister who handles the crucial agriculture portfolio.

The union minister’s departure triggered fresh buzz within the BJP about whether PM Modi will induct new members in his council of ministers ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Narendra Singh Tomar, who is a seasoned organisation man, and Patel, who comes from politically significant Other Backward Classes, are seen as possible chief ministerial choices in Madhya Pradesh along with the incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been at the centre in Madhya Pradesh politics

As far as Rajasthan politics is concerned, it is expected that the party leadership may pick one of the outgoing MPs as the new chief minister of Rajasthan, where veteran leader Vasundhara Raje is also in the race.

Apart from Raje, Sao, an OBC, and Sai, who comes from the Scheduled Tribes, are seen as serious contenders due to their social background, image and relatively young profile.

In the recent Assembly Elections Results, the BJP emerged victorious in the three Hindi-speaking states- Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.