Madhya Pradesh: BJP MLAs to elect legislative party leader today amid suspense over CM face

Today, the recently elected Madhya Pradesh BJP MLAs will gather to choose the party's legislative leader. With an overwhelming victory of 163 seats in the 230-member Assembly on November 17, the Bharatiya Janata Party firmly maintained its hold on power in MP, with the Congress coming in second place with 66 seats.

It did not, however, present a CM face because Prime Minister Narendra Modi's widespread appeal was a major component of the campaign. According to an MLA, the meeting is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. today, and the CM's name might be revealed by 7 p.m.

At 11 a.m., the party's central observers—chief minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar, chairman of the OBC Morcha K Laxman, and secretary Asha Lakra—are anticipated to come. The MLA stated that the meeting would start at 4 pm after lunch at 1 pm.

Bharatiya Janata Party central observers have visited MP for the third time since 2004. Following Uma Bharti's resignation as chief minister in August 2004, prominent party leaders Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley headed to the state as central observers.

Following Babulal Gaur's resignation as the state's top official in November 2005, Rajnath Singh was dispatched as a central observer to assist lawmakers in selecting the next chief minister. The legislative party's leader at the time was chosen to be Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

What are the probable CM faces for Madhya Pradesh?

This time around, the saffron party did not use Chouhan as their chief ministerial candidate. Chouhan, incidentally, has taken the oath of office four times: in 2005, 2008, 2013, and 2020. The front-runners for the position include OBC Chouhan Prahlad Patel, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kailash Vijayvargiya of Indore, state unit president VD Sharma, and recently elected MLA Narendra Tomar of Dimani.

Remarkably, since 2003, the three chief ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh, namely Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur, and Chouhan, have all been from the Other Backward Classes. About 48% of people in MP identify as OBCs. Amit Shah, the chief player for the BJP and Union Home Minister, had already met with Patel, Tomar, Vijayvargiya, Sharma, and Scindia in New Delhi. They also made a call to J P Nadda, the party president.

(With inputs from PTI)