The Bharatiya Janata Party sprang yet another big surprise on Tuesday when it picked first-time MLA from Sanganer Bhajanlal Sharma as the chief minister of Rajasthan, ending days of speculations.
Sharma will have two deputies—Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa.
Bairwa won the Dudu constituency, defeating Congress candidate Babulal Nagar with a margin of 35,743 votes. Diya Kumari won from the Vidyadhar Nagar constituency against Congress' Sitaram Agarwal with a margin of 71368 votes.
Sharma, along with the deputy CMs, met Governor Kalraj Mishra in the evening to stake claim to form the government in the state.
MLA Vasudev Devnani will be the Assembly Speaker. He hails from Ajmer and has previously served as the state education minister.
The name of Sharma was proposed by former chief minister Vasundhara Raje at a meeting of the newly elected MLAs in Jaipur. Raje was herself considered to be in the running for the top post.
Earlier, Union minister Rajnath Singh and other party observers—Vinod Tawde and Saroj Pande—held a meeting in which Union minister and BJP’s Rajasthan election-in-charge Pralhad Joshi was also present at the meeting.
"...I would like to assure you that all the MLAs of Rajasthan will definitely meet the expectations that the people have with us, with the BJP. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will ensure holistic development of Rajasthan in all areas," Sharma said.
