NEW DELHI: He was sitting in the third row, after some time his name was called as the leader of the legislature party. The selection of a Brahmin face is seen as a safe choice in Rajasthan, where Rajputs and Jats are the dominant castes. But picking a member from either community carries the risk of reverse polarisation next year– a situation the BJP could not afford.

Vasundhara Raje was acceptable to both communities as she, an erstwhile royal, was a Rajput who married into a Jat family.
The Saffron BJP fielding fresh faces for the top jobs in the heartland states it won — appears to have reserved its biggest surprise for Rajasthan. Bhajanlal Sharma, named the new Chief Minister of Rajasthan, is a first-time MLA from Sanganer. The MLA, who is from Bharatpur, was not given ticket from there as the seat wasn’t considered winnable for upper castes. Mr Sharma will have two deputies  “People’s princess” Diya Kumari, who was an aspirant for the top post — and senior leader Prem Chand Bairwa. The BJP has been factoring in caste and class arithmetic in a big way in the heartland states in the run-up to next year’s general election.
With the announcement, the BJP has now dropped all of its previous chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Singh Chouhan), Chhattisgarh (Raman Singh) and Rajasthan (Vasundhara Raje). In Madhya Pradesh, Mohan Yadav was chosen as the new chief minister while Vishnu Deo Sai will lead the Chhattisgarh government.
One of the longest serving party-men in Rajasthan, Mr Sharma could not be more different from Vasundhara Raje, who helmed state on behalf of the party for three terms.
The 56-year-old, initially associated with the ABVP, the student wing of the party’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)RSS) , has always kept a low profile. A state general secretary of the party, he is seen as an organisation man, unlike Ms Raje, who was often seen to be at variance with the top leadership.
Even so, there was speculation that Ms Raje, the party’s tallest leader in the state, will be benched. The pattern is similar to Madhya Pradesh, where four-time Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chhattisgarh’s former Chief Minister Raman Singh, were dropped.
Once again, the party’s top leadership asked Raje to propose Sharma’s name as the new chief minister at the legislature party meeting in Jaipur on Tuesday afternoon. The central observers for the meet were defence minister Rajnath Singh, Vinod Tawde and Saroj Pandey. For the past five terms, either Vasundhara Raje or Ashok Gehlot have been chief ministers of Rajasthan.
While the BJP did not announce who its chief ministerial candidate was during the recently-concluded assembly elections, Raje and Union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Ashwini Vaishnaw were considered to be the frontrunners. The BJP won a convincing victory in Rajasthan, bagging 115 of the 199 seats that went to the polls.
The show of unity, though, has only drawn public attention to the senior leaders. Throughout yesterday, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh had trended on social media, with intense speculation on what would be next for him.
Meanwhile, According to sources ,BJP President JP Nadda called Vasundhara Raje on Sunday and advised her to not meet party MLAs and let the top brass decide on the CM face. Raje urged Nadda to make her CM for one year. The former CM refused Nadda’s proposal to become Lok Sabha speaker, sources in the BJP told Newstrack24x7.com.
( With Inputs from Jaipur).

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