Raje, Shivraj, 9 ministers/MPs who quit Parliament to be assigned key roles
New Delhi, Dec 17: With the selection of new chief ministers and deputy chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the BJP is likely to assign new roles to former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and nine MPs who had resigned from Parliament after winning the assembly elections.
As part of the election strategy, the BJP had fielded 21 MPs in the assembly elections in four states, out of which 12 MPs won the polls.
On the instructions of the party high command, all these 12 MPs resigned from Parliament. At that time, it was said that many of them were contenders for the post of chief minister but this did not happen.
The MPs who resigned from Parliament included former Union ministers -- Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel, Renuka Singh -- Uday Pratap Singh, Rakesh Singh, Riti Pathak, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Diya Kumari, Kirodi Lal Meena, Mahant Balaknath, Arun Sao and Gomati Sai.
Out of these 12 leaders, Arun Sao has been made the deputy chief minister of Chhattisgarh and Diya Kumari the deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, while it has been decided to make former Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar the Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
According to sources, the party is soon going to give key responsibilities to the remaining nine leaders who won the Assembly polls from their respective states.
It is being said that 5-6 of these MLAs can be made ministers in their states. Two MLAs have indicated that they will not become ministers and said that they will work for the organisation only. Some of these leaders may contest the Lok Sabha elections again in 2024.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who is currently the national vice president of the BJP, will stay away from active politics for the next 5 years, as the Speaker of the Chhattisgarh Assembly.
Former Rajasthan CM Raje is currently the national vice president of the BJP and if everything goes well then former Madhya Pradesh CM Chouhan can also be made a national vice president of the party.
It is also being said that the party can give an important role to both Chouhan and Raje in the Lok Sabha elections to be held next year and if both these leaders agree, then they can also be brought into national politics by making them contest the Lok Sabha elections.