In another unexpected development, the BJP named Bhajanlal Sharma, a legislator representing the Sanganer Assembly constituency, as the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
Sharma is a first-time MLA from the Sangeer constituency in Jaipur. He defeated Pushpendra Bhardwaj of the Indian National Congress by a margin of 48,081 votes in the recently concluded assembly elections.
There were many speculations around who would be the Rajasthan CM, but the party high command finally decided to hand over the post to a Brahmin face.
Meanwhile, former Lok Sabha MP Diya Kumari, a Rajput face and Premchand Bairwa, a Dalit leader, will be the Deputy Chief Ministers. Vasudev Devnani, the lawmaker from Ajmer (North) Assembly constituency will be the Assembly Speaker.
Bhajanlal Sharma has served as the general secretary of the party under three state presidents. He has also been the president of the district morcha in Bharatpur.
The 56-year-old Sharma's surprise ascent comes after the saffron party named Mohan Yadav, a state cabinet minister and three-time MLA, as the next Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on Monday. Yadav succeeded Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the party's longest-serving CM.
Sharma's elevation was a shocker as former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Ashwini Vaishnaw were said to be among the frontrunners for the Chief Minister's post in Rajasthan, one of three states that the BJP won in the recent elections.
The team of BJP observers who oversaw the legislature party meeting that named Sharma as the CM choice in Jaipur was led by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Vinod Tawde and Saroj Pandey and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, the BJP in-charge for Rajasthan, were the other observers.
Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje proposed Bhajanlal Sharma's name at the meeting and it was unanimously approved by the rest of the members.
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In the recent Rajasthan assembly polls, the BJP won 115 seats out of 199, leading to the ouster of the incumbent Ashok Gehlot government, while the Congress clinched 69 seats.
Deputy CM-designate Divya Kumari, a granddaughter of Man Singh II, the last ruler of Jaipur, won from the pink city's Vidhyadhar Nagar Assembly constituency. She defeated Congress candidate Sita Ram Agarwal by a substantial margin of 71,368 votes in the recently concluded assembly elections.
Prior to this, Kumari served as a Member of Parliament representing the Rajsamand Lok Sabha constituency since 2019, a position from which she resigned following her latest electoral triumph.
Fellow deputy CM Premchand Bairwa secured victory from the Dudu (SC) Assembly constituency in Jaipur, a seat he previously represented between 2013 to 2018. He defeated Babulal Nagar, the incumbent MLA from Congress, by a margin of 35,299 votes. This win serves as retribution for Bairwa's 2018 defeat to Nagar.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Speaker-designate Vasudev Devnani is a five-time MLA from Ajmer and has served as Rajasthan cabinet minister under the Raje administrations in 2003-08 and 2013-18.
Devnani first became an MLA from the Ajmer West constituency in 2003 and has gone on to represent the Ajmer North seat since 2008. In the recently concluded Assembly elections, he secured victory by defeating Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Ralawata with a narrow margin of 4,644 votes.