New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is most likely to announce its chief ministerial candidate for Madhya Pradesh on Monday. The saffron party's 163 newly-elected legislators will meet and select their leader in the presence of central observers tomorrow, reported PTI.
In the recently concluded state assembly elections, the BJP secured a landslide victory by winning as many as 163 of the 230 seats, leaving the Congress a distant second at 66.
According to PTI, the meeting is expected to begin at 4 pm and the name of the CM may be announced by 7 pm.
The party's central observers, comprising Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, OBC Morcha head K Laxman, and secretary Asha Lakra, are expected to arrive at 11 am.
"We have been invited for lunch at 1 pm. The meeting will begin at 4 pm," PTI quoted an MLA as saying.
On the meeting of BJP MLAs with observers, BJP MLA Radha Singh said, "All the MLAs have decided (the CM). Whatever our seniors want that will happen. But I want that Shivraj Singh Chouhan (to become the CM)."
The meeting was earlier scheduled to take place on Sunday, but it was put off till Monday due to the busy schedule of observers, as per the report.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya met incumbent chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at his residence in Bhopal ahead of the much-awaited announcement.
This time, the saffron party contested the Assembly polls without projecting Chouhan as its CM face. Incidentally, Chouhan is a four-time CM, having taken oath in 2005, 2008, 2013 and 2020.
According to PTI, Prahlad Patel, former Union minister and newly-elected Dimani MLA Narendra Tomar, Indore heavyweight Kailash Vijayvargiya, state unit chief VD Sharma, and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia are the front-runners for the post.
Patel, Tomar, Vijayvargiya, Sharma, and Scindia have already met Union Home Minister and BJP's key strategist Amit Shah in New Delhi. They also called on party president J P Nadda.