Jaipur, Dec 13 : If sources in the BJP are to be believed, the party leadership scripted the story of Bhajan Lal Sharma's elevation a few months ago. While the Rajasthan BJP leaders were clueless, the central leadership was taking major strides towards putting its strategy in place. Many leaders confirmed that the high command had decided upon Sharma way back in 2018 soon after the Assembly polls because he was a grassroots worker who concentrated on his job without getting into politics. Sharma served as party General Secretary under the leadership of four BJP state presidents namely Ashok Parnami, Madanlal Saini, Satish Poonia and CP Joshi. Sharma wanted to stand for the recent Assembly elections from his native place Bharatpur, however the party insisted that he contest from the safe seat of Sanganer, in Jaipur. Sharma has old ties with JP Nadda, as before becoming the BJP National President he used to go often to Bharatpur for the Govardhan Parikrama and Sharma was the district president of Bharatpur then. Sharma is also close to Nimbaram as when he was the co-province pracharak of the RSS, his centre was Bharatpur. In 1990, Sharma was actively involved in the ABVP's Kashmir march and went till Udhampur. During this period he was also arrested. Plus, Sharma also went to jail in the Janmabhoomi movement in 1992. Due to his previous association with the ABVP and the support of the Sangh, Sharma got opportunities to move ahead in the organisation and came in direct contact with Shah in 2021. Amit Shah took charge of the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021 and Sharma had gone there as his associate. Since then Sharma was part of Amit Shah's core team. It was on Shah's instructions that Sharma was given a ticket from the safe seat of the party. Those seeking a ticket from Sanganer raised objections to this but were told that Sharma had been given the ticket on the instructions of Shah. After this all protests stopped. Meanwhile Sharma, after winning from the seat was silent and did not do any lobbying like the other CM hopefuls. Eventually he emerged as a dark horse at the eleventh hour and surprised everyone. /IANS