BJP's ex-CM list grows as challenges mount

On May 14, the BJP in a surprise move picked Manik Saha to be the new chief minister of Tripura in place of Biplab Kumar Deb.

The move came as the Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in the state in 9 months and Deb — who once set the social media on fire with his bizarre statements, including that the internet existed during Mahabharata — was not so popular anymore.

Thus, he went, joining the league of BJP chief ministers who were removed before and after the Assembly polls.

And the list is growing: Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand; Vijay Rupani in Gujarat; B S Yediyurappa in Karnataka and Sarbananda Sonowal in Assam.

This illustrates a unique problem the saffron party is faced with. While the BJP looks strong as ever at the Centre, the party is finding it difficult to retain the CMs in some states for long.

But the ever-alert BJP is still winning in states post overhaul, and is faced with no rebellion anywhere. Contrast this with the always-in-crisis Congress.

Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab chose to form a new party and align with the BJP when he was replaced ahead of the Assembly polls. The Congress badly lost the polls. Rubbing it in, party’s senior leader Sunil Jakhar joined the BJP a couple of days back.

In Gujarat, which is heading to the polls, the Congress looks in trouble.

Firebrand Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who was the Congress face in the 2017 Assembly polls, resigned from the party this month, hurling "chicken sandwich, mobile phones" barbs at Team Rahul.

However, ushering in change mercilessly has not been a major headache for the BJP, with most of its ex-CMs quietly choosing exile instead of making their anger public.

For the saffron party, the only problem at the moment is former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje who has apparently dug in her heels instead of retiring.

The party now seems to have reconciled to her leadership for the next year’s state polls.

High drama in hill state

Of all the BJP-ruled states, Uttarakhand produced the most drama, as the hill state saw three chief ministers in a span of four months last year.

Trivendra was replaced after four years, while his successor Tirath Singh was gone in just four months. The BJP fought the state Assembly polls under a relatively young leader Pushkar Dhami, the third CM between March and July last year. While Dhami again became CM after the BJP won the polls this year, the other two are cooling their heels

Trivendra, though, is making use of the free time by being busy on Twitter, posting party's messages, while Tirath's Twitter timeline shows the leader raising people's and legislative issues and still getting miffed over women wearing ripped jeans.

Their bios identify them as 'ex-CMs' as they have not moved on to any bigger role in the party hierarchy.

Rupani’s fate

In Gujarat, Rupani has virtually vanished from the political landscape after his unceremonious exit in September 2021. The former Gujarat chief minister now keeps a very low profile and is barely seen.

"He is barely there in party meetings since most of these meetings are chaired by Paatil saheb (C R Paatil). The last time the two (Rupani and Paatil) were seen together was at the Chintan Shivir," said a leader.

A close aide said, "These days Vijaybhai spends more time working for his trust, Shri Pujit Rupani Memorial Trust, which works for the upliftment of poor children and shuttles frequently between Rajkot, his home town, and Gandhinagar."

It is no secret that Paatil, the Gujarat BJP president, said to be close to Modi, and Rupani could never get along.

Last year, the party had brought in Bhupendra Patil as Chief Minister, apparently with an eye on Patidar votes.

End of Deb

In 2018, Deb was the toast of the BJP in Tripura as he led the saffron party to its first government in the state. By doing so, the Deb-led BJP dislodged the 25-year-long CPM government led by veteran politician Manik Sarkar.

The BJP talked about making Tripura a hub of connectivity by bringing in HIRA (Highway, Internetway, Roadway, Airways). "The BJP will give you HIRA in place of Manik (Sarkar)," Modi had said. The Deb experiment lasted four and a half years.

A BJP leader in Tripura said Deb’s bad time started with the "obnoxious" statements he made frequently soon after becoming the CM. Deb claimed that the Internet was present even during the days of Mahabharata.

Another time, Deb claimed that he wanted every family to rear ducks as ducks give more oxygen.

During a function to observe the Civil Services Day, Deb said only civil engineers should become civil servants as they can give better suggestions for infrastructure development. "Such comments affected his image as a young and educated leader," he said.

(With inputs from Satish Jha in Ahmedabad and Sumir Karmakar in Guwahati)