New Delhi: Putting all speculation to rest, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday decided to pass on Chhattisgarh’s chief ministerial baton to a younger leader, Vishnu Deo Sai.
It was earlier speculated that the party may back the three-time former CM, Raman Singh (71), or go for an OBC or tribal candidate for the post.
The decision to pick Sai, who hails from influential Sahu (Teli) community, was taken at the Chhattisgarh Legislature Party meeting in Raipur. Besides the newly-elected 54 MLAs, three observers- Union ministers Arjun Munda and Sarbananda Sonowal and party general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam, party’s in charge for Chhattisgarh Om Mathur, Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and co-in-charge for the state Nitin Nabin were present.
Sai will be first tribal chief minister of Chhattisgarh.
ABOUT CHHATTISGARH NEXT CM
The former Chhattisgarh BJP president and ex-Union minister of state won the recently concluded assembly polls from Kunkuri with a margin of over 25000 votes. He held the position of state president of the party from 2020 to 2022 and is known to have close links with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was also the Minister of State (MoS) for Steel, Mines, Labour and Employment during the first tenure of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. He won four consecutive Lok Sabha elections from Raigarh constituency in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. He is also a member of the BJP’s national working committee.
Notably, BJP emerged victorious in the recent polls in Chhattisgarh, winning 54 of 90 seats. The incumbent Congress party was reduced to 35 seats while the regional party Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) managed to win just one.
