Chhattisgarh: BJP names tribal leader Vishnu Deo Sai as new CM
Choosing Sai over Raman Singh and Arun Sao seen to send a signal to dominant tribal population of state ahead of 2024 polls
Vishnu Deo Sai, a prominent tribal face of the BJP, is set to become the next Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. A former Union Minister, he is the newly elected MLA from Chhattisgarh's Kunkuri Assembly seat.
In clearing Sai for the top job over former three-term CM and Rajnandgaon MLA Raman Singh, the BJP appears to have decided to consolidate the tribal votes in the state.
The tribals had switched nearly en masse from the Congress to the BJP in the recent state polls, leading to the grand old party's decimation in tribal-dominated Sarguja and Bastar divisions of north and south Chhattisgarh, respectively.
End to speculation
The nod for Sai's appointment as the new CM also puts an end to speculation over the BJP choosing its state chief, former MP and newly elected Lormi MLA Arun Sao for the job. Choosing Sao may have been a bid to consolidate the state's OBC voters to counter the Congress’s caste census pitch for wooing the backward castes.
A senior BJP leader from Chhattisgarh told The Federal that the Assembly poll result showed that the "BCs were firmly behind the BJP" and the party "needn't worry about the Congress wooing the backward castes because the tallest OBC leader in the country is Narendra Modi and people from the backward classes trust his leadership".
The BJP leader also said that the choice of Sai as CM would "send a positive signal to the dominant tribal population of the state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls" and pave the way for a saffron sweep in Chhattisgarh.
Sai, who will turn 60 in February 2024, had served as state president of the BJP for Chhattisgarh in 2020-22. Earlier, he was Union Minister of State for Steel during Narendra Modi's first tenure as Prime Minister. As an MP, he had represented the Raigarh Lok Sabha constituency of Chhattisgarh.