Tribal Leader Vishnu Deo Sai Is New Chhattisgarh Chief Minister

Bhopal: 

Vishnu Deo Sai – tribal leader and former Union Minister – is the BJP’s pick as the next Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh in the run-up to 2024 general election. This afternoon, he was elected as leader of the BJP’s legislature party at the meeting of the 54 newly-elected MLAs.

The selection – made after a week of deliberations — is along the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of having a tribal leader as the Chief Minister of the state, where tribals form 32 per cent of the population. They are the largest population group in the state after the Other Backward Classes — a situation that had initially left the BJP torn between picking a tribal and an OBC member. .

The decision, however, went in favour of tribals in view of the party’s unprecedented performance in the states’ tribal areas. The BJP, never on top of tribals’ list of favourites, had managed to turn around the mood and corner all 14 assembly seats in the tribal-dominated Surguja region and eight of the 12 seats in Bastar.Mr Sai, 59, is also known to be favoured by the party’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Additionally, he is close to former Chief Minister Raman Singh, who has been the party’s tallest leader in the state.