India’s national ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Vishnu Deo Sai as the Chief Ministerial face for Chhattisgarh, a central Indian state that recently went into polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP emerged victorious in the polls, winning 54 seats out of 90. The incumbent Congress party was reduced to just 35 seats while the regional party Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) managed to win just one.
Decision taken in Sunday meeting
trending now
The decision to elect Vishnu Deo Sai as the next CM was made in the BJP’s legislative party meeting held Sunday (Dec 10).
Earlier, the party had selected union ministers Arjun Munda, Sarbananda Sonowal and BJP general secretary Dushyant Gautam as the observers for the state, entrusted with the responsibility of selecting the new CM.
According to sources, the elected legislators jointly agreed to make Vishnu Deo Sai, a tribal face, the state’s new chief minister.
All three observers, elected MLAs and former Chief Minister of the state Raman Singh were present in the meeting.
Who is Vishnu Deo Sai?
Vishnu Deo Sai is the BJP’s former state chief and a former union minister.
He held the position of State President of the BJP for Chhattisgarh from 2020 to 2022. He is also known to have close links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an Indian nationalist movement which the BJP is a part of.
He was also the Minister of State (MoS) for Steel, Mines, Labour and Employment during the first Narendra Modi Cabinet.
Deo won four consecutive Lok Sabha elections from the Raigarh constituency in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.
Watch: PM Modi at BJP headquarters: ‘People of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and MP have shown their love’
It is to be noted that BJP had contested the 2023 Chhattisgarh Assembly polls without declaring any CM face.
(With inputs from agencies)
Source: Thanks WIONews.com