Who is Bhajanlal Sharma, BJP's choice for Rajasthan CM? Why was he chosen?

The BJP has chosen Bhajanlal Sharma as Rajasthan chief minister. The choice of Sharma by the BJP legislature put an end to days of speculation about whom the party would pick. The BJP ousted the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan in the recently held Assembly polls winning 115 seats out of the 199 seats available. The Congress, meanwhile, was reduced to just 69 seats. The BJP had appointed observers led by defence minister Rajnath Singh to hold a meeting with elected legislators in Rajasthan to declare the CM candidate. But what do we know about Sharma? Why was he chosen? And whom were the other names doing the rounds? Let’s take a closer look: Who is he? Sharma, an upper caste leader, is a first-time MLA. The 56-year-old won the Sanganer seat in the recently held Assembly polls. He netted an impressive 145,162 votes against the Congress’ Pushpendra Bhardwaj 97,081 votes.

As per Moneycontrol, Sharma hails from Bharatpur. Sharma, who is a postgraduate, declared that he has assets worth Rs 1.5 crore in his Election Commission affidavit. His father is named Kishan Swaroop Sharma. This comprises Rs 43.6 lakh in movable assets and Rs 1 crore as immovable assets. Sharma, who has links to the RSS and ABVP, is the senior most general secretary of Rajasthan BJP.

He has held the post four times.

Sharma is considered to be the BJP’s man in Rajasthan and is said to maintain a low profile, as per Moneycontrol. As per Hindustan Times, he is considered close to BJP party chief JP Nadda. He completed postgraduate from Jaipur’s Rajasthan University in 1993. He has a Master’s Degree in politics. As per Indian Express, Sharma has one criminal case lodged against him. Why did the party pick Sharma? What other names were doing rounds? As per Business Today, Sharma’s choice indicates that the party was looking beyond ex-chief minister Vasundhara Raje and that it wanted a changing of the guard. NDTV quoted sources as saying that the BJP could be considering generational change as a factor when picking CMs as well as looking ahead to the 2024 polls.

The BJP, like the other states that went to the polls, did not choose a CM face in Rajasthan. The BJP has already sprung surprises by choosing Vishnu Deo Sai and Mohan Yadav as chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The choice indicates that this is the end of the road for Raje – who some thought was the front-runner in Rajasthan – who won from the Jhalrapatan seat by a margin of 53,193 votes. As per Business Today, Raje in recent days met with a number of MLAs in what was seen as a show of support. Raje even travelled to Delhi to meet central leadership. Ironically, it was Raje herself who proposed Sharma’s name for chief minister. [caption id=“attachment_13459832” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] BJP leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. ANI[/caption] Another name that was being considered for chief minister was that of Vidhyadhar Nagar MLA Diya Kumari. Kumari on Tuesday was named deputy chief minister of Rajasthan alongside Dudu MLA Premchand Bairwa.

The Vidhyadhar Nagar MLA is a member of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family.

Her father is the former Jaipur royal Sawai Bhawani Singh. Singh earned plaudits in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war as a lieutenant colonel and the commanding officer of the Para Commandos of the 10th Parachute Regiment. Kumari, who received 1,58,516 votes in the recently held Assembly polls, beat the Congress’ Sitaram Agrawal by a margin of 71,368 votes. The Rajsamand MP was earlier elected as an MLA from Sawai Madhopur in 2013. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2019 parliamentary polls. [caption id=“attachment_13461162” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Diya Kumar is welcomed by BJP workers after the victory from Vidyadhar Nagar assembly constituency in Rajasthan. Image courtesy: @KumariDiya/X[/caption] She is associated with several NGOs and organisations, including the Eye Bank Society of Rajasthan and Rays, an NGO working for HIV+ children. She is the patron of the NGO. Some were saying that BJP MLA Baba Balaknath – a priest turned politician – was also being considered for the top post. Balaknath, an MP from Alwar, prevailed in the hotly-contested Tijara seat. Balaknath defeated the Congress’ Imran Khan who got 1,04,036 votes –by a margin of 6,173 votes. The seat witnessed the second-highest polling percentage at 86.11. Balaknath, 39, who belongs to the same Nath sect as Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, emerged as a strong leader after his victory in Tijara – a seat the BJP had won only once between the first election in 1951 and 2018. Balaknath on Saturday had asked the public to ignore discussions about his name being brought up for the post of chief minister.

He said needs to gain experience under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Ignore the discussions going on in the media and social media that came out after the election results. Now, I have to gain experience under the guidance of Prime Minister,” Balaknath said on X. The Election Commission had served a notice to Balaknath over his statement where he compared the Assembly elections to an India-Pakistan match. Balaknath later claimed he was “encouraging” people to turn out in maximum numbers to increase the voting percentage. “The Muslims here are being dominated. There are Muslims of extremist mindset here. They have dominated everyone here… “They are the same extremists who are dominating the whole Muslim community and going against their will. The situation today in Tijara is bad because of them. [caption id=“attachment_13496102” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Baba Balaknath was served a notice by the Election Commission.[/caption] “Their thought process is anti-national and is aimed at stopping the country’s development… the people of Tijara will answer them,” Balaknath had told PTI ahead of voting. The names of Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Meghwal and Ashwini Vaishnaw were also among the probables for chief minister. Shekhawat, the Union Jal Shakti minister, is the BJP’s Rajput face in Rajasthan, as per Hindustan Times. Shekhawat first gained the spotlight by defeating then Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He is said to be close to the RSS and top party leadership.

He earlier denied being in the race for the chief minister’s post. [caption id=“attachment_13458312” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Gajendra Singh Shekhawat denied being in the race for CM. Twitter[/caption] “I am not in any kind of race. I only do the work my leadership and the organisation gives me to do. I have no aspiration or desire other than this,” the 56-year-old told PTI. Meghawal, meanwhile, is the Minister of State (independent charge) of Law and Justice. The ex-bureaucrat and among the BJP’s Dalit faces in the state is said to enjoy Modi’s confidence, as per Hindustan Times. The 69-year-old three time MP is said to be a good administrator and keep a low profile. Vaishnaw is the Union Railway Minister as well as the IT minister. The bureaucrat-entrepreneur-turned-politician took charge of the railways in July 2021. [caption id=“attachment_13402002” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw[/caption] The former IAS officer of the 1994-batch previously held leadership roles across major global companies such as General Electric and Siemens. Vaishnaw did his MBA from the Wharton School, Pennsylvania University, and his M Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. Elections for 199 out of 200 seats was held on 25 November and the result was declared on 3 December. The election for Karanpur seat of Sriganganagar could not be held due to death of Congress candidate. With inputs from agencies