RSS leader and Sanganer MLA Bhajanlal Sharma was on Tuesday named as the next chief minister of Rajasthan, ending the prolonged suspense over the leadership issue in the state.
Sharms, 56, defeated Congress candidate Pushpendra Bhardwaj with a margin of 48,081 votes in the state polls.
His name for the chief ministership was announced after a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party held in the presence of central party observers, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Rajya Sabha member Saroj Pandey, and BJP national General Secretary Vinod Tawde.
After the meeting, Rajnath also announced that Diya kumari, MLA from Jaipur’s Vidhyadhar Nagar Assembly and daughter of Maharaja Sawai Singh; as well as Prem Chandra Bairwa, MLA from Dudu, will be the new deputy chief ministers.
Vasudeo Devnani, former education minister and Ajmer North MLA, will be the new Speaker of the state assembly, the defence minister said. He added that former chief minister Vasundhara Raje proposed the name of Bhajanlal Sharma for the chief ministership which was seconded by all the elected MLAs.
Soon after the legislature party meeting, Sharma & his deputies, led by the central observers, visited Raj Bhawan and met Governor Kalraj Mishra to stake claim to form the new government in Rajasthan.