Former Union Minister Vishnu Deo Sai selected as new Chhattisgarh CM

RAIPUR: Tribal leader and former Union Minister Vishnu Deo Sai is the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) pick as the new Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.

BJP leader and Union Minister Renuka Singh Saruta said, "I am very happy that Vishnu Deo Sai will be the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. This is the first time a party worker from the tribal community belonging to a farmer's family has been elected as the CM..."

Sai won the recently concluded assembly polls from Kunkuri in north Chhattisgarh, a region the BJP has swept.

Sai is a prominent figure in the BJP and has held various positions, including being the former state chief and former union minister. Sai hails from the influential Sahu (Teli) community which has a sizable presence in the Durg, Raipur and Bilaspur divisions. He served as State President of the party for Chhattisgarh from 2020 until 2022. He was the Union Minister of State for Mines, Steel in the first PM Modi cabinet. He is highly regarded among tribal voters.

Earlier, BJP central observers Sarbananda Sonowal and Arjun Munda held a meeting in Raipur.

The polling in the state was held in two phases, with the first on November 7 featuring 223 candidates and the second seeing 958 candidates put their electoral fates to the test on November 17. Of the 90 assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh, the BJP bagged 54 while the Congress won 35.