As BJP wins without CM faces, does it mark a new phase for party

In the BJP’s corner there was essentially only Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which the party sometimes euphemistically framed as a vote for the “lotus” or the party. At other times, it referred to a rather nebulous concept called collective leadership, which roughly meant the 18 MPs – including Union ministers – fielded by the BJP in the three states.

Coming months after the BJP’s Karnataka loss, blamed on the party’s marginalisation of its biggest state leader B S Yediyurappa, the Sunday results put the central leadership back in control, a position to its liking.

Given the scale of the victories, against big odds, it can now freely choose the new CMs in the three states, as well as create the ground for the rise of a new regional leadership.

At the same time, the party might find it difficult to ignore the claims of either Shivraj Singh Chouhan (a four-time incumbent CM) in Madhya Pradesh or Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan completely. Neither is close to the current central leadership, but both remain the BJP’s most popular leaders in their states, and have significant support among the newly elected MLAs.

“You cannot take Chouhan lightly, despite this kind of a mandate. He continues to be the sole leader in the state who can communicate with the electorate, cutting across differences, and is the party’s most visible face. The same is with Raje. Forming a government without them may be possible in the honeymoon period, but one cannot ensure stability if they are not in the loop,” a senior party leader said.

Party sources also pointed to the Karnataka loss, as well as the examples of Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Haryana, where the leaders chosen by the central leadership failed to repeat the party’s electoral performance after one term.

In their first reactions Sunday, all BJP leaders – including Chouhan and Raje – were careful to credit the victories to Modi.

Prahlad Singh Patel, one of the Union ministers in the Madhya Pradesh race, who won from Narsinghpur, posted a photo of PM Modi on X, with the note: “Desh mein ek hi guarantee chalti hai (Only one guarantee works in the nation).”

Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia thanked “the leadership of PM Modi”, “the guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda”, as well as “the leadership of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state party president V D Sharma”.

Chhattisgarh state BJP president Arun Sao reposted what Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote on X, “Modi ji ka netritva aur janata ka vishwas. Chhattisgarh ki jeet (The leadership of Modiji and the trust of the people. The victory of Chhattisgarh).”

The BJP’s victorious candidate from the Vidyadhar Nagar constituency of Jaipur, Diya Kumari, said: “The credit for this win goes to PM Modi, Amit Shah ji, J P Nadda ji, state leaders and party workers.”

The turn towards regional leaders playing second fiddle in the party is the latest churn within the BJP. A decade earlier, a similar change was seen at the central level, when Modi became the prime leader ahead of names like L K Advani, M M Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and M Venkaiah Naidu.

Now, apart from Chouhan and Raje, many familiar BJP faces over the last two decades in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan face an uncertain future.