The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced the names of Rajasthan’s new chief minister and his deputies, ending days of speculation that followed its victory in the assembly polls.
BJP’s upper-caste leader Bhajanlal Sharma was the party’s surprise pick for the chief ministerial post while three-time MLA and strong Rajput leader Diya Kumar and SC candidate Prem Chand Bairwa were appointed as the deputy chief ministers of Rajasthan.
Who is Diya Kumari?
Often referred to as “People’s Princess”, Diya Kumari is a member of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family who paved her way to politics through the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She is a two-time MLA and one-time MP.
Kumari contested the 2023 Assembly polls from Rajasthan’s Vidhyadhar Nagar constituency and defeated Sitaram Agarwal of the Congress by over 71,000 votes.
The 51-year-old BJP leader became an MLA for the first time in 2013 from the Sawai Madhopur assembly seat. She was said to be among the frontrunners for the post of chief minister.
In 2019, Diya Kumari was elected as an MP from Rajsamand.
Kumari is the daughter of erstwhile Jaipur royal Sawai Bhawani Singh, who earned distinction in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war as a Lt Colonel and Commanding Officer of the Para Commandos of the 10th Parachute Regiment.
Kumari is also associated with several causes of humanitarian caused such as the Eye Bank Society of Rajasthan, and Rays, an NGO working for HIV+ children, of which she is the patron.
Prem Chand Bairwa, the New Deputy CM of Rajasthan
Prem Chand Bairwa, who will share the deputy chief minister portfolio along with Diya Kumari, is BJP’s Dalit face in Rajasthan politics. The 54-year-old won the assembly elections from the Dudu constituency.
Bairwa defeated Congress’s Babu Lal Nagar with a margin of 35,743 votes. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur.
Bairwa’s appointment is being seen as an attempt by the saffron party to balance caste equations after it named Brahmin face as the chief minister and Rajput as the deputy chief minister.
The Bairwa community voters hold great significance for the BJP, as the community has traditionally voted for the Congress and the naming of Prem Chand Bairwa may turn out to be a strategic move by the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP won 115 seats in the assembly elections, while the Congress got 69 seats. Elections were held on 199 of the 200 seats in the state.
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