About 25 BJP MLAs met former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Monday in what seems to be a "show of strength," news agency PTI reported. Raje is reported to be one of the frontrunners for the CM job. The development comes amid significant speculation about the top prospects after the BJP reclaimed control in the state, capturing 115 seats in the assembly elections last week. In the elections, the party did not select a candidate for CM.
Despite calling it a courtesy meeting, MLAs declared they will back Raje if the party leadership picks her for the state's top job.
People have observed the works of PM Narendra Modi and Raje, according to Nasirabad MLA Ramswaroop Lamba, and the choice on the CM would be made by the party's parliamentary board. When asked if all of the party's MLAs will back Raje for CM, he stated legislators are behind her. The freshly elected MLAs began visiting Raje's Civil Lines house and met with her. Kalicharan Saraf, Babu Singh Rathore, Prem Chand Bairwa, Lalit Meena, Bahadur Koli, Pratap Singh Singhvi, Kalu Lal Meena, Shankar Singh Rawat, and Vijay Singh Chaudhary were among those who met the former CM.
Raje is the BJP's national vice president and a former chief minister.
Buzz Grows On BJP's Choice For CMs In 3 States
A day after the BJP won large in three assembly elections, conversations inside the party switched to the potential chief ministerial candidates in these states, with senior officials meeting on Monday.
There has been no official statement on what happened during a meeting between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J P Nadda. According to insiders, the party's highest echelon has been consulting before making the final decision.
The party's central leadership will shortly select observers to watch gatherings of freshly elected MLAs in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan where leaders will be elected.
While senior party leaders have not commented on the likely chief ministerial picks, many within the BJP believe that the massive mandate it has received in the three states should be interpreted as a strong statement of wider popular support for its policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
The perception was echoed by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who was elected as an MLA from Madhya Pradesh, who said that the enormous mandate was due to Modi's leadership rather than any particular initiative of the state administration led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.