NEW DELHI: BJP replaced six chief ministers in the last six years before assembly elections in four states. The party won in Gujarat and Uttarakhand while the others will face polls in the next couple of years.
On the flip side, BJP did not change CMs in six states in the last five years and did not win a majority in any of them. This is one of the major reasons which explains why the party replaced Biplab Kumar Deb with Manik Saha in Tripura last week.
States where BJP did not change CM
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana are the states where BJP did not change the CMs and failed to win a majority in all of them.
BJP went to polls in Rajasthan in 2017 with Vasundhara Raje as CM. It lost to Congress in the assembly election.
In Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh was the CM when the state faced assembly election in 2017. Here too, BJP lost miserably to Congress.
Raghubar Das was the CM when Jharkhand faced election in 2019. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) emerged as the single largest party followed by BJP. JMM and Congress formed a coalition government in the state.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the Madhya Pradesh CM from 2005 till the 2017 assembly election. BJP went to polls with Chouhan as the CM face in the previous election and it was pipped by Congress, which emerged as the single largest party in a hung assembly. Kamal Nath of Congress went to form the government along with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and independents.
In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election, BJP won the maximum number of seats in a hung House with Devendra Fadnavis as the CM face. However, Shiv Sena (SS), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress forged a post-poll alliance to form the government with Uddhav Thackeray of SS as the CM.
In Haryana, BJP with Manohar Lal Khattar as CM failed to win a majority though it emerged as the single largest party in the 2019 assembly election. In a post-poll alliance, it joined hands with Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala to form a coalition government.
States where BJP changed CMs
On the other hand, BJP changed CMs in Gujarat in Uttarakhand and won both of them.
In Gujarat, the party replaced Anandiben Patel with Vijay Rupani as the CM ahead of the 2017 assembly election. It won the polls. Rupani then gave way to Bhupendra Patel for the election later this year.
BJP changed not one but two CMs in Uttarakhand last year. It first replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat with Tirath Singh Rawat in March 2021. It replaced Tirath with Pushkar Singh Dhami in July 2021, a few months from the assembly election which was held earlier this year. The party came out with flying colours in the election.
In Karnataka, which is scheduled to face polls in 2023, BJP replaced B S Yediyurappa with Basavaraj Bommai in July 2021.
Similarly, in Tripura, Biplab Deb made way for Manik Saha last week. The state goes to polls in 2023.
