A YEAR OF CM BHAJAN LAL’S LEADERSHIP AMID HURDLES

Bhajan Lal Sharma, the 14th Chief Minister of Rajasthan, is the fifth Brahmin Chief Minister of the state and the first Brahmin Chief Minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Before Bhajan Lal Sharma, Hiralal Shastri (Jaipur), Jayanarayan Vyas (Kishangarh/Jodhpur), Tikaram Paliwal (Mahuva/ Jaipur) and Haridev Joshi (Banswara) have been Brahmin Chief Ministers. However, all these Chief Ministers were Chief Ministers of the Indian National Congress. If seen, Jayanarayan Vyas was the first elected Chief Minister of the state who was elected Chief Minister after the first election held in 1952. In this sense, Bhajanlal Sharma is the fourth elected Brahmin Chief Minister of the state.

In republican India, Hiralal Shastri became the first Chief Minister of the state but his tenure lasted less than a year and after his removal, a bureaucrat C.S. Venkatachari took over the reins of the state for 110 days. After this, politicians again came to power and Jayanarayan Vyas became the Chief Minister of the state but in less than a year, Tikaram Paliwal toppled him. Tikaram Paliwal also did not last long and Jayanarayan Vyas again seized power from him in 1952 and ran his government for four and a half years. After this, Rajasthan politics took a new turn and the then Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru handed over the keys of power in the state to a young leader of Mewar, Mohan Lal Sukhadia (Udaipur) in place of his favourite Jayanarayan Vyas, in the presence of stalwarts like Niranjan Nath Acharya, Manikya Lal Verma and Bhogilal Pandya, who in his four tenures created an unbreakable record of being the Chief Minister for the longest time in the history of Rajasthan. Sukhadia had created history of being the Chief Minister for the longest time in the country at that time, but the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suddenly removed him and called back Barkat Ullah Khan from his Haj pilgrimage and made him the Chief Minister.

By the way, after 66 years, another history was repeated exactly one year ago when the top leadership of BJP led by BJP’s National President J P Nadda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, with the consent of RSS, bypassed big names and trusted Bhajan Lal Sharma, who had a long experience in the state organization, everyone was surprised. A year ago, even the people of the state were not so familiar with the name of Bhajan Lal Sharma. He had never been an MLA before being elected MLA for the first time from Sanganer Assembly seat of Jaipur last year. However, before this, he was Sarpanch in the Gram Panchayat of his birthplace village Attari in Bharatpur district from 2000 to 2005. Later, he worked for a long time in the organization of state BJP and was also the General Secretary and Vice President of Rajasthan State BJP.

The one-year term of Bhajan Lal Sharma’s BJP government in Rajasthan has been completed on Sunday, December 15. Incidentally, Sunday was also the birthday of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. After the BJP got a majority in the state assembly elections held in the year 2023, Bhajan Lal Sharma, who comes from a very ordinary background, was elected Chief Minister in comparison to Vasundhara Raje, the two-time Chief Minister of the state, and other veteran leaders. In fact, Raje, along with Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who was sent to Jaipur as the central observer by the BJP, read out the “slip” sent by the party high command and announced his name. With the formation of the new government, the BJP created a new tradition and surprised everyone by making its party candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT a minister in Karanpur of Sri Ganganagar district. Despite this, the BJP lost the election from Karanpur assembly constituency of the farmerdominated Sri Ganganagar district and Surendra Pal Singh TT had to leave the ministerial post. Due to the death of the Congress candidate during the assembly elections, the election in Karanpur was postponed and the election in Karanpur could not be held along with the state assembly elections.

The situation for Bhajan Lal Sharma, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, became challenging after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP secured only 14 out of 25 seats, down from a clean sweep in 2014 and 2019. The resignation of senior minister Dr. Kirori Lal Meena, citing failure to ensure victory in some eastern Rajasthan seats, further complicated matters. Despite these hurdles, the BJP under Sharma’s leadership triumphed in five out of seven by-elections, turning the narrative around. In his first year, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma’s government achieved notable successes. Over 1.24 lakh jobs were created, and significant steps were taken to tackle paper leak mafias. The government signed an MoU for the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), which had long been an issue. Sharma also organized the ‘Rising Rajasthan Investment Summit’ in Jaipur, which resulted in MoUs worth Rs 35 lakh crore, aiming to transform the state’s economy and contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a developed India by 2047. Sharma’s government focused on women empowerment, increasing reservations in recruitment for teachers and police. Additionally, promises to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, and to provide LPG cylinders to poor families at a subsidized price, were fulfilled. The government issued notifications for nearly 70,000 jobs and laid the groundwork for future development projects.

Challenges persist, including managing a cabinet with 80% new faces and ensuring bureaucracy doesn’t dominate. Financial management remains a key issue, requiring steps to reduce the fiscal deficit. Opposition leaders, such as Congress President GS Dotasra, have raised concerns about the govt’s functioning. However, Sharma remains focused on advancing major projects like the ERCP. On December 17, PM Modi will lay the foundation for the ERCP project in Dadiya village.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Gopendra Nath Bhatt, The writer is a senior journalist