BJP Retains Outgoing Chief Ministers In Goa, Uttarakhand And Manipur
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2022-03-21 15:28:40
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In the end, the BJP has gone for continuity and has retained the outgoing chief ministers is Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur. After hectic parleys in Delhi over the last ten days, the matter was sealed after a meeting that was attended by Prime Minister Modi.
In normal course, any outgoing chief minister should be reappointed if the party is able to overcome anti-incumbency and win a handsome mandate. But there are many pulls and pressures in state units and that was precisely the reason that the party had not declared its chief ministerial candidate in any of these states.
In Goa, Pramod Sawant was not the automatic choice for two reasons. There was visible anger amongst the people against his government and there were several other aspirants. The party had to bring them on board to support Sawant. Then there was the question of soured relations between Sawant and the MGP whose support the BJP has taken to form the government (it was one short of majority and MGP has 2 MLAs). Sawant must consider himself lucky to have got the chance.
In Uttarakhand, the BJP had in the past changed the chief minister after an election as he had lost his seat. Prem Kumar Dhumal had lost the election in 2017 and was not reappointed. Thus, going by precedent, it was tough for the party to retain Pushkar Singh Dhami. But having changed chief ministers twice just months before the elections, any further change would have shown the party in bad light. Further, the state unit of the BJP is beset with infighting. Dhami is credited with having mended fences with his rivals. Also, at 45 years of age he is young and the party felt he deserved the chance be chief minister for a full term.
But the delay in Manipur was incomprehensible. N Biren Singh is a popular leader and led the party to its first solo majority. He should have been the automatic choice to be chief minister again. The delay was perhaps due to the fact that there were other contenders in Thongam Biswajit Singh and the RSS-backed Yumnam Khemchand Singh who were not ready to accept him. The party had a tough time convincing the others, especially Biswajit Singh, that N Biren Singh was the best choice.
The delay in naming chief ministers in these states proves that if it is tough for the BJP to announce a chief ministerial candidate in states before the elections (unless someone is as popular as Yogi Adityanath), it is even tougher to pick a candidate after a victory. It is only because the BJP is a disciplined party and PM Modi and Amit Shah have complete control over things that the high command is able to impose its choice without much internal rumblings in state units.
