New BJP president after Dussehra?

By G. Krishna Mohan Rao

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the election results in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, once again there are strong speculations in the political circles that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may soon get a new president.

At least half a dozen names are doing rounds for the top-party post. Party sources indicate that whoever is the choice of leadership, will be in consultations with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Since January 2020, JP Nadda has been holding the party fort as BJP president.

The extended tenure of the incumbent Nadda was to be over by the June end of this year but he has been continuing in his position since there has been no decision on his successor. Since Nadda is now also a Union Minister for Health and not able to devote his time, the party leadership is serious about picking his successor, when Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections are around the corner which would be followed by Bihar and Delhi later next year.

Top party sources indicate that given the upcoming bye-elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly as well as Assembly elections to several states, the leadership strongly feels an urgent need to have a new BJP president and a new team to take the party forward. The revamp of the party at this stage would re-energise the cadres and the party and also party would make up for deficiencies in various regions where it has weakened. Sources indicated that the period between Vijay Dashmi and Deepawali should be watched carefully. This is when the changes may take place.

Party insiders say that over the past few months, several names have been doing rounds for the  post of BJP president but it is evident that the BJP and its controlling authority, the RSS, have been unable to arrive at a consensus. Sources said that the relations between the two organisations have been strained and even during the Parliamentary polls, RSS volunteers had kept away from the electoral battle. In the middle of the polls and soon after the first phase was over, Nadda had in an interview to a national daily declared that the BJP was now self-sufficient and thus was not dependent on its relations with the Sangh. Many felt in the party that it was an unnecessary statement by Nadda when Lok Sabha elections were in progress.

In other words, it is obvious, that there have been some problems over some of the names and therefore no clarity has so far come about, party sources said. To begin with, the names of Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Manohar Lal Khattar, Sunil Bansal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Devendra Fadnavis, Sunil Bansal, and Vinod Tawade were mentioned in the Sangh circles. Of late, Sanjay Joshi, who has a troubled relationship with the Prime Minister Modi was tipped to take over.

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The final decision is in the hands of the RSS, and its boss, Mohan Bhagwat has time and again been making no secret of his unhappiness over the functioning of the party. On several occasions, he has stated that the BJP was no longer what it used to be. Many activists who had helped in building the organisation were on the sidelines, and instead, leaders from other parties, who were deemed corrupt and anti-BJP, were thriving. This was a completely unacceptable situation and needed to be rectified as early as possible.

The Sangh has a distinct ideology and has always promoted people with a clean image and those who have worked selflessly in the public sphere. All of a sudden, the very people against whom, the workers had worked over the years, were allowed to sit on their heads. This amounted to not only dilution of the Sangh agenda but also lowering the exacting standards set for those occupying positions of authority. There is a section within the Sangh which is of the view that the key positions within the BJP should only be announced after they are cleared by the RSS.

Sources say, that if the RSS had chosen Narendra Modi as the number one leader in the party in 2014 and played a major role in making him Prime Minister, it is the RSS which alone should also decide who should be the number two leader within the party. These things may seem unnecessary to many political pundits but the RSS in the 100th year of its existence wants to assert its authority as well as its principles.

It is understood that numerous meetings of top RSS functionaries with many top BJP leaders have been taking place during the past few months and thus an attempt is being made to find an amicable solution to resolve the differences, real or imaginary. Nagpur has played a silent role in the journey of the BJP for many years but it is determined to ensure that those who hold key positions within the party do so only after Sangh’s approval. In other words, the new party chief, whoever it may be, would have full faith in the Sangh’s policies and have the approval of the leadership.

*Senior journalist