Will Gajendra Shekhawat be BJP’S Rajasthan CM face?
There is speculation that he may give up his Lok Sabha seat to contest the 2023 Assembly elections.
Kuldeep Bishnoi, a Congress MLA from Haryana’s Adampur Assembly segment who defected from the party and joined the BJP, made his son Bhavya Bishnoi contest the same seat in the bypoll, which he won. Now, according to a BJP insider, Kuldeep Bishnoi, who does not hold any seat, is planning to contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Rajasthan from the Jodhpur seat.
According to the insider, “Bhavya Bishnoi has visited the seat and preparations seem to be going on for Kuldeep Bishnoi to contest the Lok Sabha elections from there. Let’s not forget that Bishnoi votes are in maximum numbers in Jodhpur and there is no way that he will lose the election.”
The Sunday Guardian called Bhavya Bishnoi, son of Kuldeep Bishnoi, to know why Kuldeep Bishnoi would leave his home state and contest from Rajasthan, but did not receive any response from him.
Interestingly, BJP’S Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is already a sitting member of Lok Sabha from Jodhpur. So now speculation has started that Shekhawat may give up his Lok Sabha seat in order to contest the upcoming Assembly elections in 2023, which has prompted more speculation within the party that this will be a significant signal from the BJP that he is a possible Chief Minister face for the saffron party in Rajasthan. Officially, the party says that it is planning to contest the Assembly elections of 2023 without a CM face.
Analysts on the ground in Rajasthan suggest a near wipeout of the Congress at the hands of the BJP in the coming Assembly elections because of substantial anti-incumbency against the Ashok Gehlot government. As the BJP is preparing for a possible Assembly victory next year, it is also taking stock of its loyalist leaders upgrading whom would keep the party stable. BJP leaders claim that they will win Rajasthan easily; however, there is also speculation within BJP circles that Vasundhara Raje will have to settle for a reduced number of tickets for her loyalists. Currently, the Raje faction has more than 50 MLAS in the state Assembly.
According to a political analyst, who did not want to be named, “If Shekhawat contests the Assembly elections, he may be given the seat of Pokhran, which could be a good seat for him.”