Jaipur: After losing 11 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, the path ahead seems full of challenges for Rajasthan CM Bhajanlal Sharma. He will not only have to woo his senior leaders within the party, but will also have to face the challenge of assembly by-elections for five seats as sitting MLAs of these seats have become MPs now.
Bhajan Lal Sharma, who was made the CM of Rajasthan, has completed almost six months of his tenure but his performance in the first challenge of Lok Sabha elections has not been as expected. The BJP, which had made a clean sweep twice in a row in the previous Lok Sabha elections, lost 11 seats this time. Since the BJP has not been able to achieve a majority on its own at the Centre, this loss of 11 seats is looking quite significant for the BJP.
Although the responsibility for the party's poor performance in the elections lies mostly with the central leadership, as from candidate selection to campaign and management was in the hands of the central leadership, but at the local level, being the CM, the leadership was of of Bhajanlal Sharma. He worked hard and campaigned for almost all the seats, but couldn't get the expected results.
Bhajanlal Sharma was made the CM by bypassing many senior leaders like former CM Vasundhara Raje, Kirodilal Meena, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjunram Meghwal etc. Along with these, another big name was of Diya kumari, who is now the Deputy CM in the government.
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It is believed that after this poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, serious challenges may arise for Bhajanlal Sharma internally in the party. Among these, the biggest challenge may come from former CM Vasundhara Raje, who, despite being very active in the assembly elections, was not made CM and after the formation of the government, was completely sidelined.
In the Lok Sabha elections, she remained confined to Jhalawar, the seat of her son Dushyant Singh, who scored an impressive win for the fifth time in a row. It is believed that even today Raje has a good influence among the MLAs and its effect can be seen in the coming days.
Apart from Raje, there is Kirodilal Meena, who is a big leader of the Meena community and was a strong contender for the post of CM, but the party did not even make him Deputy CM. He is currently a cabinet minister in the government and after the election results hinted to resigning through social media.
Deputy CM Diya Kumari may also become a challenge for the CM as she was also a contender for the post of CM, although being deputy CM she holds the major departments like Finance and Public Works Department. The administrative circles are abuzz with runners of conflict between the two.
Along with this, by-elections have also been decided on five assembly seats in Rajasthan because five sitting MLAs Brijendra Ola, Harish Meena, Murarilal Meena, Hanuman Beniwal and Rajkumar Roat have now become MPs. All of them are MLAs of Congress and parties in alliance with it. Winning these seats for BJP will be the next big test for Bhajan Lal.
