Newly-elected Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma with his deputies Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa, newly-elected State Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani and Rajasthan BJP President CP Joshi addresses the media during BJP Legislature Party meeting, in Jaipur.
Credit: PTI Photo
The BJP on Tuesday announced Bhajanlal Sharma as Rajasthan’s chief minister-designate while Prem Chand Bairwa and Diya Kumari were nominated as the deputy chief ministers of the state.
Prem Chand Bairwa, the 54-year-old deputy chief minister-designate and a Dalit face in the saffron patry, is a second-time legislator from Dudu assembly constituency near Jaipur. In the recently concluded elections, he won with a margin of over 35,000 votes against Congress candidate Babu Lal Nagar.
He was first elected as an MLA from the Dudu seat in the 2013 assembly elections but suffered a loss in the 2018 polls. He was defeated by then Independent candidate Babu Lal Nagar, who has been elected as MLA from the Dudu seat five times.
“He is known to talk less, maintain a low profile and toil in the party organisation,” former Jaipur rural BJP president Jitendra Sharma told The Indian Express.
Bairwa, a PhD holder from the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, is a member of the national body of BJP’s SC Morcha and has previously been a Dudu Zila Parishad member, Sharma added.
Bairwa on Wednesday said his priority would be to take along all sections of the society and also restore law and order in the state.
"We will work on restoring law and order. Rajasthan was leading in crime against women and Dalit atrocities and now, the new government will work to restore law and order. We will take along all sections of society," he told PTI.
The oath-taking ceremony is likely to take place on December 15. The BJP won 115 seats in the November 25 assembly elections while the Congress secured 69 seats. Polling was held on 199 of the 200 seats in the state.
(With inputs from PTI)