JAIPUR: Parliamentarian Mahant Balaknath who was fielded in the Rajasthan Assembly polls is considered a favourite as the chief ministerial candidate after the latest trends showed the party comfortably crossing the halfway mark.
Balaknath is leading from his Tijara constituency, with Congress trailing by a huge margin.
Balaknath, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Alwar and is just 40 years old, told ANI that this time BJP on its own will bag 120+ seats in Rajasthan.
Just before the counting of the votes started this morning, Balaknath visited a Lord Shiva temple and offered his prayers.
Rajasthan has 199 Assembly seats, with BJP currently leading on 112 seats and incumbent Congress a distant second at 71. Over 40 rebels from both the BJP and the Congress contested the Rajasthan election after they were denied tickets.
The reason for the BJP’s comfortable victory, according to Balaknath, is that the people wanted to get rid of Congress.
He targeted the Rajasthan Congress on corruption, atrocities against women, and rising crimes.
A day ahead of the results, on Saturday, Balaknath met Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh at the BJP headquarters.
When asked about the meeting with BL Santosh, Balaknath said that it was a courtesy meeting.
“As far as the post of CM is concerned, our Prime Minister is the face for BJP and we will continue to work under his leadership. The decision on who will be the CM will also be taken by the party. I am happy as an MP and want to serve society and I am very satisfied with it,” he said.
Like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Balaknath also comes from the Nath community, and he has tremendous support and following in Alwar.
He had taken sannyasa back in his childhood days at the age of 6. The decision that he would become a saint was taken by his family members. Balaknath contends he always wanted to serve the society.
“Whatever be the medium, the society should be served and that is what I am doing,” he asserted.
Other contenders for the top post are former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and central minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. (ANI)