New Delhi: Amid speculation within the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh units that some senior leader other than the former chief ministers — Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh — could be appointed Leader of the Opposition in the state Assemblies, the BJP parliamentary board on Thursday appointed Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Thaawar Chand Gehlot as the party’s central observers for the election of leaders of its legislature parties in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and
Chhattisgarh respectively. The BJP recently lost these three states to the Congress, including MP and Chhattisgarh, which it had been ruling for the past 15 years.
The parliamentary board meeting, also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, also named co-observers — Vinay Sahasrabuddhe for Madhya Pradesh, Avinash Rai Khanna for Rajasthan, and Anil Jain for Chhattisgarh. The three senior leaders are party in-charges for these states. The dates for the legislature party meetings will be decided later.
