BJP opts for Vishnu Deo Sai as Chhattisgarh's next chief minister; Arun Sao, Vijay Sharma likely to be deputy CMs

Vishnu Deo Sai headed the Chhattisgarh unit of the BJP from 2020 to 2022

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has picked Vishnu Deo Sai as the next chief minister of Chhattisgarh. The decision was announced following the BJP's legislature party meeting called in Raipur on December 10, where its MLA-elects were in attendance.

The party has also decided to appoint senior leaders Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma as deputy chief ministers, CNN-News 18 reported, citing sources. Sao, a Lok Sabha MP from the state's Bilaspur constituency, has been heading the BJP's Chhattisgarh unit since August last year.

The announcement of Sai as the next chief minister was met with celebration from party workers outside the BJP headquarters in Raipur. Senior party leaders, including Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and BJP's Chhattisgarh in-charge Om Mathur, were seen garlanding him.

Also Read: BJP choice for Chhattisgarh CM: Meet Vishnu Deo Sai, tribal leader and ex-union minister

"I would like to thank the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president JP Nadda for exhibiting faith in an ordinary party worker like me. I am also thankful to the party MLAs for supporting me," Sai said, while speaking to reporters following the announcement.

"As chief minister, I will try to fulfil PM Modi's guarantees through my government," he added, further noting that sanctioning 18 lakh houses to beneficiaries of housing scheme will be the first work to be undertaken by his government.

The BJP, which won a decisive mandate to govern the central Indian state in the polls held last month, had been deliberating over the past week on choosing its chief ministerial face.

While speculations were rife that it may back the return of BJP veteran Raman Singh as the state's CM, the leadership eventually decided to pass the baton to a younger leader. Singh, 71, is a three-time former Chhattisgarh CM, having headed the state government from 2003 to 2018.

Sai, 59, had earlier served as Union minister of state for steel, mines, labour and employment during the first tenure of the Narendra Modi government. He was appointed as the chief of the BJP's Chhattisgarh unit in 2020, two years after the party faced a rout in the Assembly polls. He was replaced by Arun Sao in August 2022, around a year ahead of the recent elections.

Also Read: Chhattisgarh Election Results 2023: From disarray to sterling victory, this BJP win has few parallels in Indian politics

Sai belongs to the tribal community, which is estimated to form around 30 percent of the state's population. Post-poll surveys suggested that the community voted in large numbers for the BJP in the November Assembly elections. The choice of Sai as the CM could further consolidate its votes in favour of the saffron party in the general elections next year.

"This is the first time a party worker from the tribal community belonging to a farmer's family has been elected as the CM," BJP leader and Union Minister Renuka Singh Saruta told news agency ANI.

Sai would be succeeding Congress' Bhupesh Baghel, a member of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), who served as the CM of Chhattisgarh over the last five years. Despite rolling out populist schemes including a farm loan waiver, Baghel failed in his re-election bid. The ruling Congress was reduced to 35 seats in the 90-member Assembly, whereas, the BJP secured a clear majority of 54 seats.