Raipur: After a week of deliberation, and after appointment of three observers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has finally named former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai their chief minister in Chhattisgarh. Senior tribal leader and a crowd favourite, the Kunkuri MLA is a four-time MP and a three-time MLA from Jashpur.
Born in 1964 in Jashpur district’s Bagia village, Sai started his political career as a panch in 1989. Hailing from a family of politicians, Sai is very close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). His uncle Narhari Prasad Sai served as a two time MLA as a member of the Jan Sangh and was a minister of state in the Janata Party government.
Sai too became a central government minister of state in the 2014 Modi government and was entrusted with portfolios like steel, mining and labour.
After the BJP lost Chhattisgarh in 2018, Sai was made the BJP state chief. On the international day of the world’s indigenous people last year, Sai was sacked from the post earning BJP heavy criticism. He was replaced by Arun Sao, an OBC face brought forward by the BJP to counter former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s OBC-politics.
A member of Kanwar tribe, Sai had declared property to the tune of Rs 3 crore in the just concluded state election. Within the party, he is believed to be a disciplined BJP leader and a Sangh loyalist. His name had been in the running since BJP won a comfortable majority in Chhattisgarh.
In the results declared on December 3, the BJP won 54 out of 90 seats in the state and 17 of the 29 tribal seats. After the tough line followed by Congress on the OBC card, many within the BJP thought that the the party would follow suit and name an OBC leader.
However, political experts believe that the BJP has played the tribal card as part of a bigger political narrative the it is building for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “The country has a tribal president and Chhattisgarh is known to be rife with tribal issues. It makes complete sense to put a tribal CM in the state. Especially, from the northern part of the state, which has over the years felt neglected in the larger political narrative,” a political analyst commented.
Sai, who was encouraged by Dilip Singh Judev to join politics, had managed to be close to former Chattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh as well. In a fractured party, Sai had managed to remain in the good books of most leaders. This, many believe, will come in handy for him in handling the various factions simmering within the majority party.
With Sai’s appointment, the BJP also seems to be setting the narrative for a new batch of leaders for Chhattisgarh. Within this new crop, the party seems to be instilling a kind of discipline, a perceived sense that positions of power come to those who wait diligently and work silently.
Even though Sai is a tribal face for the BJP, he has always put the party before his identity. In fact, tribal leaders believe that since he spent most of his political career in the Lok Sabha, he has a certain disconnect from the tribal issues of the ground.
The BJP also announced Vijay Sharma and Arun Sao as the deputy chief ministers and Raman Singh as the speaker of the Chhattisgarh while the suspense over who will bag the posts in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh continues. However, by choosing a tribal chief minister, the BJP certainly hopes to win brownie points in identity politics.
