BJP picks Bhajanlal Sharma as next Rajasthan Chief Minister; Diya Kumari to be his deputy

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday picked Bhajanlal Sharma for the chief minister's post in Rajasthan, ending the suspense that went on for days after the party staged a comeback. Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa have been appointed as deputy chief ministers. 

Bhajanlal Sharma, who comes from the RSS background, is the sitting MLA from the Sanganer assembly seat, which falls under Jaipur. In the 2023 assembly polls, he won the seat by 48,000 votes. He defeated Congress leader Pushpendra Ji Bhardwaj. He also served as the State General Secretary for the BJP four times.

The name was announced in the BJP Legislature Party meeting at the party's state headquarters, which was attended by central observer Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and two co-observers -- national vice president Saroj Pandey and national general secretary Vinod Tawde. 

India Today reported that two days ago, central agencies had done a background check on Bhajanlal Sharma and Diya Kumari. Diya Kumari's name was doing the rounds for the chief minister's post. However, the party has named her as one of two deputy chief ministers.   

Diya Kumari was the MP from the Rajsamand parliamentary seat. She contested from the Vidhyadhar Nagar assembly constituency in Jaipur. She bagged the seat by securing 63.30 per cent votes against Congress leader Sita Ram Agarwal. 

After the party returned to power, names of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, MPs Baba Balaknath and Diya Kumari, union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ashwini Vaishnaw started doing the rounds. Raje, two-time chief minister, was seen as the front-runner but reports suggested that the party was looking beyond her and may go with a new face to effect a generational shift. 

In the recent few days, several BJP MLAs met Raje in what was seen as a show of support for her. The former chief minister is believed to have considered clout among MLAs. She also flew to Delhi to meet party leaders.

In the recent assembly polls, the BJP bagged 115 seats out of the 199 that went to polls. Polling was postponed in one constituency due to the death of a candidate. The Congress, which bagged 100 seats in the last polls, settled with just 69 seats.