Vasundhara Raje excluded from key BJP committees for Rajasthan polls

Party makes first move in MP, Chhattisgarh, releases list of candidates before EC's election dates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced 21 of 90 candidates for the Chhattisgarh Assembly and 39 of 230 for Madhya Pradesh, focusing on declaring candidates on seats reserved for scheduled tribes (STs). In 2018, the BJP performed poorly on the seats reserved for STs in these two states. 

In a rare move, the BJP released its first list of candidates even before the Election Commission (EC) declares the dates for the Assembly polls, which could help its candidates prepare better.

Five states – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, and Telangana – will vote to elect fresh Assemblies in November-December. In 2018, the EC announced the poll dates in the first week of October.
 

The BJP’s lists came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the party's election committee meeting.

Of the 21 candidates the BJP announced for Chhattisgarh, four are women, nine on seats reserved for STs and one for Scheduled Castes (SCs). In Madhya Pradesh, of the 39, five candidates are women, eight announced on SC reserved seats, and 13 on seats reserved for STs.

In Madhya Pradesh, 47 seats are reserved for STs and 35 for SCs. In Chhattisgarh, 29 are reserved for STs and 10 for SCs. In Chhattisgarh, the BJP announced fielding Vijay Baghel, currently a Lok Sabha member from Durg, from the Patan Assembly seat. Baghel is a former legislator from Patan. 

BJP’s Rajasthan ploy

In Rajasthan, the BJP on Thursday announced its 21-member election management committee and 25-member manifesto panel, keeping out former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, state BJP unit chief C P Joshi, and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from both in a bid to check infighting. Rajendra Rathore, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, has also been excluded from the two committees.

The party appointed former MP Narayan Lal Panchariya as convener of the election management committee. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, a Lok Sabha member from Bikaner, is the convener of the manifesto committee. While former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore is part of the election management panel, Rajya Sabha members Ghanshyam Tiwari and Kirodi Lal Meena are part of the manifesto panel.

Infighting among its top leaders in Rajasthan, where it hopes to wrest power from the Congress, has the BJP top brass worried.

Congress rejig

The Congress on Thursday appointed senior leader Mukul Wasnik as its general secretary in-charge for Gujarat. He replaced Raghu Sharma. The Congress performed abysmally in the Gujarat Assembly polls in December 2022.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress appointed Randeep Singh Surjewala as its general secretary in-charge, replacing Jai Prakash Agarwal. Surjewala is also the in-charge of Karnataka, where the party scored a morale-boosting win in May. The Congress appointed former legislator Ajai Rai as the party's Uttar Pradesh state unit chief, replacing Brijlal Khabri.