Chhattisgarh BJP MLAs to meet on Sunday, suspense over CM could end

An important meeting of the newly elected 54 MLAs of the BJP in Chhattisgarh will be held here on Sunday to elect the legislative party leader. This meeting is likely to end the tension over who will be the next prime minister.

The BJP legislative party meeting will take place on Sunday. The party's three observers, Union Ministers Arjun Munda and Sarbananda Sonowal, and party general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam will be present, president Arun Sao, chairman of the party's state unit, told reporters on Saturday.

BJP's Chhattisgarh in-charge Om Mathur, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and party co-incharge of the state Nitin Nabin will also be present, he added.

Mathur landed at Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur on Saturday evening.

Asked about the meeting of BJP MLAs, Mathur said: Our party's observers are coming and we are waiting for the decision they take (during the meeting on Sunday).

Replying to a question, Mathur said there is no 'formula' for choosing the chief minister.

“A system has been set by the BJP Parliamentary Board and it will be followed,” he said when asked about the observers' visit.

The meeting to elect the BJP's legislative party leader would begin at 12 noon.

Meanwhile, Mathur exuded confidence that Congress will be swept away in the 2024 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh.

In the 2018 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 9 of the total 11 seats in the state, while the Congress bagged only two constituencies.

Asked about the BJP's plans for the upcoming general elections, Mathur said, “It is certain that Congress will be wiped out in the Lok Sabha polls” and congratulated BJP workers and leaders in Chhattisgarh for their efforts to pull off a historic victory in the parliamentary elections.

In the recently held parliamentary elections, the BJP won 54 of the 90 seats and the Congress 35. The Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) managed to win one seat.

Speculations are doing the rounds on who will get to don the chief minister's mantle as the BJP is contesting the recent polls without announcing any CM face.

There is speculation that the party will go for an OBC or a tribal chief minister if it does not choose stalwart Raman Singh, who was CM three times from 2003 to 2018.

Former Union Minister Vishnu Deo, Renuka Singh, who resigned as Union Minister after being elected MLA, former Union Ministers Ramvichar Netam and Lata Usendi, and MP Gomti Sai, who won the Assembly elections, are seen as contenders from the tribal community. .

State BJP chief Arun Sao, who also resigned as MP after being elected MLA, and bureaucrat-turned-politician OP Choudhary, both from Other Backward Classes (OBC), are also among potential CM candidates.