 "BJP")
Following the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) win in the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections 2023, speculations are rife about the next chief minister of the state.
The central leadership party is in talks about whether to fall back on former chief minister Raman Singh or to opt for a new face to head the new government in Chhattisgarh. However, this decision by the Central party leadership is crucial considering the Lok Sabha elections due in May-June 2024.
Although names of five leaders, including Raman Singh and state BJP president Arun Sao, are making rounds in the BJP circle as front-runners for the coveted post, a senior party functionary said, "The BJP leadership may also spring a surprise by choosing a new face for the chief minister post for Chhattisgarh."
The BJP leader added, "Chhattisgarh was earlier chosen as a laboratory for political experiments by the BJP. The party had fielded new faces in all the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state in the 2019 polls after the rout of the BJP in 2018 Assembly polls in the state. The experiment had yielded amazing results with the BJP winning nine out of 11 LS seats. I cannot rule out the possibility of another such experiment being explored by the party leadership for the selection of the chief minister."
Other BJP leaders who are being considered as strong contenders for the chief minister post are ex-bureaucrat O P Choudhury, Union minister and tribal leader Renuka Singh, and former Union minister and tribal leader Vishnu Deo Sai.
However, the party has not finalised any schedule to convene the meeting of the new BJP legislature body to elect its leader. Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Om Mathur, who was in-charge of the elections for Chhattisgarh, the co-election in-charge and Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and BJP national general secretary Nitin Naveen left for Delhi on Monday.
The BJP has come back to power in the recently held Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh by winning 54 out of 90 seats. The Congress party secured 35 seats.
