PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have often talked about changed politics, in which mathematics based on caste and religion has no place. BJP tried to implement this on the ground by making Khattar non-Jat CM in Haryana, Rupani of Jain community in Gujarat and Devendra Fadnavis as CM in Maharashtra. But now it seems that the party is making corrections in its strategy. Changing Chief Ministers reflects this. In Gujarat, the party replaced Rupani and made Bhupendra Patel the CM just a year before the elections. Bringing Bhupendra Patel, who comes from the Patidar community, is being considered as an attempt to cultivate this fraternity.
Even in Uttarakhand, BJP brought Tirath Singh Rawat by removing Trivendra Singh Rawat and then when it came to removing him too, he chose Pushkar Singh Dhami from the Thakur fraternity. Apart from this, even after the removal of BS Yediyurappa in Karnataka, the new CM has been chosen by the party from the influential Lingayat community. With these changes, it is believed that in the coming days, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and Maharashtra's Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis can also be removed from the main role. Both the leaders were chosen by PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah by going beyond the caste equations of the state.
Speculations about the future of Manohar Lal Khattar and Devendra Fadnavis
Manohar Lal Khattar comes from the Punjabi community in Haryana called Jatland. On the other hand, Devendra Fadnavis does not fit into the groove of Maratha politics and comes from the Brahmin community. Talking about Gujarat, during the Patidar movement, BJP made Vijay Rupani the CM, who comes from the Jain community. He was the first Jain to become the CM of the state. Then it was believed that BJP has given a strong message to caste politics, but after 5 years politics has taken a complete u-turn. Now the BJP has again bet on the Patidar leader. It is being said that BJP is conscious of winning just 99 seats in 2017 and has decided to go with caste equations to save its stronghold.
Caste equation and preparations to contest elections on the face of PM Modi
Political experts say that instead of experienced leaders in the states, BJP has surprised the junior leaders by making them the CM. In this way, the party has made two equations that whoever the CM is, the face will remain that of PM Modi. Apart from this, caste equations have been taken care of. In fact, the party believes that even now the face of PM Modi is the most reliable to enter the elections. In such a situation, keeping the caste equations, those leaders should be elected, who are new and there is no anti-incumbency against them. In this way, the party has made efforts to reconcile two equations with one decision.
Changed strategy after losing power in Maharashtra and Jharkhand?
In fact, in 2014, after coming to power at the Center with a huge majority, the Modi-Shah duo had experimented with making chief ministers in states that were outside the dominant castes. The party had tried to give a message that PM Modi is popular among all sections and now it wants to move beyond caste politics. The party then wanted to create an equation against such dominating castes by bringing together the Golband community. But now he feels that a large caste has been left out and the polarization has not shown as expected. This is the reason why Fadnavis was made CM in Maharashtra, Khattar in Haryana and Raghubar Das in Jharkhand. But after getting less seats than expected in Maharashtra and defeat in Jharkhand, the situation has changed and the party has been forced to think afresh.
