Brijmohan Agarwal is favoured by grassroots workers due to his easy accessibility.
NEW DELHI: A two-day meeting between the BJP leaders from Chhattisgarh and senior party leaders in New Delhi, which concluded on Friday, is understood to have arrived at a consensus that the party will not project any leader as its CM face for next year’s assembly elections.
The party is understood to have decided to return to the 2003 stage when RSS was actively associated in the campaign too and no one was projected as CM. Party functionaries told The Sunday Guardian that senior party leader and Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agarwal is likely to be appointed as the chairman of the election campaign and given a free hand in the recommendation of the candidates for the polls.
Agarwal, a seven-time MLA, who had been a minister in Sundar Lal Patwa ministry of Madhya Pradesh in 1990s, is the most favoured leader by grassroots workers in all the constituencies due to his easy accessibility and due to the fact that he meets common people even after midnight. According to BJP leaders, once Agarwal’s name is announced, the BJP cadre will come out on the street to protest aggressively against the Bhupesh Baghel government, a trait that was successfully used by Baghel himself against the Raman Singh government prior to 2018 polls.
As per party sources, including those who were present in the meeting, BJP would actively involve the RSS workers in the pre-election meetings now. In 2018, they were not even associated in the selection process of the candidates. Those who were present in the meeting include Arun Kumar, RSS Sah Karyawah, general secretary (organization) Pawan Sai, state president, Vishnu Deo Sai and leader of opposition, Dharamlal Kaushik, who had headed the party during 2018 elections when BJP lost its 15-year-long held power and 75% of its ministers were defeated.
Under the changes being contemplated at Ekatma Parisar, BJP headquarters, to present a new look BJP in Chhattisgarh, is replicating “UP model” in which a large number of sitting BJP MLAs were dropped and even those who contested and lost, but wanted the ticket again, were not given the party ticket. The Chhattisgarh-based leaders who were in Delhi for two days had also brought with themselves seat wise analysis, results of the elections that have taken place in the state since 1998.
The party is also unlikely to project a tribal or a OBC face as its CM contender as using tribal leaders like Nand Kumar Sai or Ram Vichar Netam in the past has generated no significant political benefits for the BJP. While Agarwal, like former Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das, is a Marwari, the soft spoken Raman Singh is a Thakur.
The Sunday Guardian has learnt that specific central schemes directed towards Chhattisgarh will also be launched in the coming days. The present state president Vishnu Deo Sai and the leader of opposition in the Assembly Kaushik are both considered to be from the Singh camp. Raipur-based BJP party leaders told The Sunday Guardian on Friday that both Sai and Kaushik are likely to be replaced in the coming days.
In the 2018, 2013 and 2008 elections, Dr Raman Singh who took the oath of CM for the first time in December 2003, was BJP’s CM candidate. However, a strong anti-incumbency wave against his leadership had led to the worst performance by BJP in the 2018 polls with the party just being restricted to 15 seats. In subsequent by-elections that were held in four constituencies, BJP lost to the Congress, touching an all-time high tally with 71 seats in 90 members House.
Dr Raman Singh, currently national vice president of the BJP, had been extended an offer for an honourable exit from the state BJP by offering him the role of Governor in a bigger state, something which Dr Singh is understood to have rejected. On Friday, Dr Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and presented a detailed report on the status of BJP in Chhattisgarh. He had met party president J.P. Nadda on Thursday. Nadda on Friday was in Gujarat where elections are due in November.