BHOPAL: Second time legislator and former Lok Sabha member from the tribal dominated Betul district – Hemant Khandelwal is all set to be the next Madhya Pradesh BJP president.
The 60-year-old commerce and law graduate, who is the second time legislator from Betul seat, was the lone leader to file the nomination for the state BJP chief’s election at the state party HQ in Bhopal on Tuesday.
Importantly, his nomination papers had as the proposer, the state’s CM Dr Mohan Yadav himself – with whom the seasoned Vaishya community leader is believed to have close rapport.
Coming from a family with deep RSS roots (his father Vijay Khandelwal was the BJP MP from Betul LS seat four times between 1996 and 2008) Khandelwal has previously served as the party's Betul district unit chief and also the state party’s treasurer. He was currently heading the Kushabhau Thakre Trust.
With Khandelwal’s nomination for the post being the single nomination, he is set to be elected unopposed as the new president of MP BJP. The formal declaration of him succeeding the outgoing state party chief VD Sharma (who was the president for a record five plus years) will be made on Wednesday.
Khandelwal will possibly be the second MP BJP president from central MP, after present union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who while being the fifth time MP from central MP’s Vidisha seat had headed the saffron party’s state organization for 263 days in 2005-06.
Following his ascendency as the state BJP chief, he will be the fifth sitting MLA in 45 years to head the saffron party in MP. Prior to him, former CMs Sunderlal Patwa, Kailash Joshi, Nandkumar Sai and present Vidhan Sabha Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar had served as state BJP chiefs while being members of the Vidhan Sabha.
This latest development also marks a departure from the 15-year-old trend of sitting MPs (members of Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha) heading the party’s organization in the central Indian state. Prior to him the last four MP BJP presidents, including the outgoing chief VD Sharma and his predecessors Rakesh Singh, Nandkumar Singh Chauhan and Narendra Singh Tomar have all been sitting MPs.
The politics behind Khandelwal’s ascendency as MP BJP chief
According to state BJP insiders, the Vaishya community has been the most loyal and traditional voter of the party since the Bhartiya Jana Sangha (BJS) days. But currently the community doesn’t have a major decision-making position in the ruling party in MP and adjoining states, including UP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Handing Khadelwal the command of the state BJP will send positive signals to the Vaishya community, whose politician will head the state BJP after 31 years. The last time a politician from the Vaishya community headed the saffron party in MP was Lakhiram Agrawal between 1990-94.
“Khandelwal not just hails from the Vaishya community, but is also considered to be a leader well connected with grassroot workers. In the last few years, the MP BJP’s organization has been working more in a glitzy and five-star cultural manner, where those heading the party have not been as accessible to the workers as in the past. Khandelwal’s election to state party chief’s post will usher hope of the karyakarta getting empowered back,” a state BJP leader told TNIE.
Also, Khandelwal is acceptable and enjoys rapport with most senior BJP leaders, including the present CM Dr Mohan Yadav as well as the former CM and present union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
According to BJP insiders, when Khandelwal contested the LS by-poll from Betul seat in 2008 (which was necessitated by his four-times MP father Vijay Khandelwal’s death) then MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressed more than 100 public meetings, ultimately ensuring Khandelwal’s win by 35,000-plus votes.
It's also believed that the CM Rise School model instituted by then CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2022 was inspired by the Samekit School model of Khandelwal, whose family runs a premier school in Betul and also an agri industrial cluster in the central MP district.
As per informed political sources, a senior RSS leader from MP (who enjoys proximity with the top BJP bosses in Delhi), who is believed to have played a key role in Dr Mohan Yadav’s ascendency as MP CM in December 2023 – might have also been instrumental in Khandelwal being made the new state BJP chief.