New Delhi: BJP state president Arun Sao and first-time MLA Vijay Sharma will be the two deputy chief ministers in Chhattisgarh while former chief minister Raman Singh will be the speaker, ThePrint has learnt.
On Sunday, the BJP Legislature Party had elected former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai, its main tribal face in Chhattisgarh, as the next chief minister.
“The party chose two deputy chief ministers for caste balancing and effective administration. Sao has demonstrated to be an effective leader with OBC background and Sharma is from the general caste. It’s a mix of experience, energy and caste matrix,” a BJP insider told ThePrint.
“We don’t want to make a mistake like Bhupesh Baghel who denied T.S. Singh Deo the chance to serve the state till the end,” the BJP source added.
Given the 42 percent OBC population in the state, the BJP decided to reward Sao, a former MP from Bilaspur, who was instrumental in the party’s performance in the OBC belt.
Similarly, Sharma is likely to be elevated given the party’s Hindutva pitch for which biggies such as Amit Shah and Himanta Biswa Sarma had raised the issue of polarisation in Kawardha.
By picking a Brahmin as a deputy chief minister, the BJP has played the delicate task of balancing caste dynamics of reaching out to the upper castes along with OBCs and adivasis.
For his wide experience in the assembly, BJP national vice-president Raman Singh is being tipped for the role of the speaker. Singh had earlier served as the chief minister for three terms from 2003 to 2018.
The BJP veteran has represented the Rajnandgaon constituency since 2008 in the Chhattisgarh Assembly. In 2008 and 2013, he defeated Congress candidates Udai Mudliyar and his wife Alka Udai Mudliyar, respectively. He then trounced Congress’s Karuna Shukla in 2018. This year, he won with a margin of 45,000-plus votes from the constituency.
Singh had also represented Rajnandgaon in the Lok Sabha constituency after he had defeated Congress stalwart and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Motilal Vora in 1999. He then went on to become the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government from 1999 to 2003.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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