Who'll Be The Next CM Of Chhattisgarh? Suspense To End Today

A week after the results for 90 seats in Chhattisgarh Assembly were announced, the BJP, which defeated the Congress, will pick the legislative party leader on Sunday. This will put an end to the suspense on who will be the next Chief Minister of the state.

The saffron party has contested the elections without announcing the name of the CM candidate.

"The BJP's 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," the PTI quoted BJP state unit president Arun Sao as telling reporters on Saturday.

BJP's Chhattisgarh in-charge Om Mathur, Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and party co-incharge for the state Nitin Nabin will take part in the meeting. Mathur landed at the 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 (at the meeting on Sunday)."

In the recently held state assembly elections, the BJP won 54 of the 90 seats and the Congress bagged 35. The Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) managed to win one seat. If the reports are to be believed, the BJP opt for an OBC or a tribal Chief Minister if it doesn't pick party stalwart Raman Singh, who served as CM thrice from 2003 to 2018.

Former Union minister Vishnu Deo, Renuka Singh, who resigned as Union minister after being elected as an MLA, former state ministers Ramvichar Netam and Lata Usendi, and MP Gomti Sai, who won the assembly polls, are being seen as contenders from the tribal community. State BJP chief Arun Sao, who too resigned as an MP after being elected as an MLA, and bureaucrat-turned-politician O P Choudhary, both from Other Backward Classes (OBC), are also among potential CM candidates.

Responding to a query, Mathur said there is no "formula" for electing the Chief Minister. "There is a system set by the BJP's parliamentary board which will be followed," he said when asked about the visit of observers. Mathur also exuded confidence that the Congress will be swept out in the 2024 parliamentary elections in Chhattisgarh.

In the last Lok Sabha polls, the BJP managed to bag 9 seats out of 11 despite the Congress party being in power in the state. The grand old party had won two seats.