The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), contrary to the media speculations, announced Bhajan Lal Sharma as the CM-designate of Rajasthan. Further, his appointment is seen as a major deviation from the general political trend. Usually, seniority and political growth had been adjudged by the number of times a leader has been elected to the state assembly or Lok Sabha. 56-year-old Bhajan Lal Sharma is a first-time MLA. He completed his MA (politics) from Rajasthan University, Jaipur, in 1993.
He is the elected MLA from Sanganer Assembly constituency. In the recently concluded 2023 Rajasthan assembly elections, he defeated Pushpendra Bhardwaj of Congress by 48,081 votes. The BJP had fielded him after denying a ticket to the sitting MLA Ashok Lahoti.
However, Sharma, a resident of Bharatpur, is said to have a strong hold on organisational politics. Before plunging into electoral politics, he had been working in the organisation for a long time. Bhajan Lal Sharma has been playing an important part in BJP’s organisational structure in Rajasthan. He has served as the state general secretary for the Bharatiya Janata Party four times. Previously, he had been associated with RSS and ABVP. For this reason, he is considered close to the party’s ideological mentor RSS, and party chief JP Nadda.
The three major announcements on three consecutive days have signalled that the organisational importance played a major role in these major selections. A key similarity in these decisions has been the history of these leaders in serving various organisational roles and strengthening the party’s cadre in these states.
Apart from Sharma, Dr. Mohan Yadav, the new CM-designate of Madhya Pradesh had held several organisational posts in BJP and its ideological mentor RSS. Yadav, who started student politics at Madhav Science College, and held many positions in the party.
In 1982, he was the co-secretary of the Madhava Vigyan Mahavidyalaya Students’ Union and in 1984, he was the President of the Madhava Vigyan Mahavidyalaya Students’ Union.
Mohan Yadav assumed the responsibility of Municipal Minister of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (Ujjain) in the year 1984 and Department Head in 1986. In the year 1988, Yadav was the state co-secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (Madhya Pradesh) and a member of the national executive. He was the State Minister of the State Unit of the Council in 1989-90 and the National Minister of the Council in the year 1991-92. In 1993-95, he served as the functionary (Sangh Karyavah) of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Ujjain Nagar.
Additionally, his appointment was also seen as a major signal of political empowerment for the Yadav community, a dominant political force in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, however, have lacked proper proportional representation owing to the family-oriented politics of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD).
Similarly, Vishnu Deo Sai, the next CM-designate of Chhattisgarh held the top organisational post in BJP’s Chhattisgarh unit. He served as Chhattisgarh BJP President from 2006 to 2013. His appointment also signalled a strong empowerment for the tribal community which was earlier witnessed when BJP-led NDA picked Droupadi Murmu for the Presidential post.
With all these new appointments, BJP signals that its motto ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’ (inclusivity) will be counter to the opposition’s push for caste census and proportional representation.
