by sushil kutty
Rajya Sabha MP and BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi addressed a presser on Saturday, November 2, and wound up the proceedings with “Pradhan Mantri ki jo soch hai, wohi Bharatiya Janata Party ki bhi soch hai.” Trivedi’s inadvertent disclosure of who lords over the BJP, lock, stock and barrel, came even as the BJP has begun preparations to elect a new party president, the deadline for which is by the last week of December 2024.
There would be “new presidents” for all levels of the party, from booth to state-level, but the Haryana election victory had offset the 2024 Lok Sabha setback and reset the Prime Minister’s leadership credentials. The new party president will kowtow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as if there’s no break. But whose name tops the list? The name is in Modi’s head and close to his chest.
Not just the appointment of a new national president, the changes will span the entire party hierarchy, in every state, from the booth to the district, Pradesh to ‘desh’. The RSS is active in this “selection process” and the party has to accomplish the metamorphosis keeping in mind “Modiji’s” diktats.
Incumbent president JP Nadda will remain at the helm till the new guy takes over. The BJP constitution mandates a given electoral process, but only the naïve will concede that the person wouldn’t have to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nod. Whoever becomes BJP President will answer not just to Prime Minister Modi but also to Union Home Minister and former BJP President Amit Shah, who will ensure whoever is chosen will always be at his beck and call.
Lofty statements will be issued, but the BJP top brass will act and behave exactly like the Congress “high-command”. Let’s not fool ourselves that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “retire” at age 75, nothing of the sort. A fourth prime ministerial stint for Narendra Modi is already the talk of the BJP. What happens to Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ambitions isn’t part of the conversation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commands the loyalty of a cabal of media and ministers owing their present and future, their all to him, to him alone. Ask the editors-in-chief and the “group editors” of mainstream media, all have an interest in who will become the next BJP president. The party’s local committees will be “elected” first. Then, there will be “polls for mandal, district, regional and state committees.” Then, the nomination of teams of office-bearers at each level. There is already a clamour for these posts.
The next national president of the BJP will nominate his own set of office-bearers. The BJP national president has a tenure of three years and he can be president for two terms. Past BJP presidents include Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh. Once a BJP President, never the Prime Minister of India?
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first BJP president after the Bharatiya Jana Sangh dissolved itself and the Bharatiya Janata Party came into being. Vajpayee was also the first Prime Minister of India from the BJP. Narendra Modi became the second. Whoever is the next BJP President, he will have to reckon with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi wouldn’t hesitate to rock the boat. Doesn’t matter if the BJP lands in neck-deep choppy waters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to keep control and check in his hands is too well known. Modi has spoken of changing the fortunes of the BJP with a complete overhaul of the party apparatus, by inducting fresh blood, by encouraging youth with no previous political experience to join the BJP, youth who are complete strangers to politics. As many as 100000 to 200000 of highly qualified young people with multi-tasking in their blood.
Modi enjoys giving youth a head-start in their lives, but what will happen to those who are no longer in his good books? With 100000 to 200000 new faces, what will happen to the tens of thousands of old faces? Not everybody is a Sambit Patra or a Bansuri Swaraj! For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is all in a day’s work to make or break careers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the reputation of being his own man but forgets that tens of thousands of BJP workers also want to be their “own man and own woman.” It is also quite well known that the BJP ditches workers after an election is lost. Except for a prized few, most everybody else in the BJP are expendable.
By December 2024, there would be hundreds of thousands of long faces in the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hubris will be the reason why the massive ego will not be denied. If the BJP wins Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections, along with the Uttar Pradesh bypolls, Modi’s swag will be back and it wouldn’t matter who’s the rightful architect of the BJP victories.
The BJP ecosystem is built around Modi, to the extent he is a demi-god. Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi punctuated every sentence he spoke at the press conference with a “Modiji this” and a “Modiji that.” Doesn’t matter who is “elected BJP President”, power will rest in the hands of “Modiji alone”.
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