As the race intensifies to select the Delhi Chief Minister, chorus has been growing within saffron ranks to appoint a Jat or a Dalit leader to the top post. With the BJP bound to weigh caste equations and other exigencies…

The call for appointing a Jat or Dalit leader to the top position has been growing within the saffron ranks as the battle to choose the Delhi Chief Minister heats up.

Leaders informally told The Tribune today that a Jat or a Scheduled Caste leader might be high on the priority list when the final decision on the chief minister is made, as the BJP is obligated to consider caste equations and other exigencies ahead of the important Bihar Assembly elections later this year.

Influential groups

• Jat: 11 of the 48 BJP MLAs in Delhi belong to the Jat community
• Dalit: The BJP, for the first time in 10 years, won 4 of the 12 SC seats in Delhi

“Jats make up a sizable portion of the electorate in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, and they have not yet been given their fair share.” It’s unclear if the BJP will give the group any recognition after capturing 90% of the Jat-dominated seats in Delhi, according to a BJP insider.

In Delhi, 11 of the 48 BJP MLAs belong to the Jat community. An equally strong case, however, emerges for a Dalit CM as the BJP won from Scheduled Caste segments for the first time in a decade, bagging four of the 12 seats. The results signalled a shift in Dalit allegiance from AAP despite the BR Ambedkar row, which party chief Arvind Kejriwal successfully spun into an electoral issue.

On why Jats and Dalits could be accorded priority while finalising the CM and ministers, a BJP leader said none of the incumbent CMs in the party-ruled states belonged to these two segments.

Current BJP chief ministers Yogi Adityanath (UP) and Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand) are Thakurs, whereas Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Nayab Saini (Haryana), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), Pramod Sawant (Goa), and Manik Saha (Tripura) are OBCs. While Pema Khandu (Arunachal), Mohan Majhi (Odisha), and Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh) are tribal, Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), and Bhajan Lal Sharma (Rajasthan) are Brahmins.

According to the sources, the party might try to find some equilibrium this time. The BJP won most of the Jat-dominated seats in Delhi. Even though Kejriwal courted the group and dared the BJP to include it among the OBCs, this still occurred. However, the BJP was able to dispel the myth that it was anti-Jat. Out of the 360 villages in Delhi, 225 regions with a Jat majority supported