By Kalyani Shankar
Who will be the next President of the BJP? The suspense is building up as the current President, J.P. Nadda, is on an extension, and the party is looking for a new leader. The party has grown enormously, from its early days, when it had only two members in Lok Sabha after 1984 elections, to now having Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the country for a third term. It currently has 18 crore members and aims to add another nine crore during the ongoing membership drive. The signal came when Nadda was taken into the Modi 3 cabinet and made the leader of the Rajya Sabha. It was clear that there would be a successor to Nadda very soon.
The organisational polls, currently underway, will precede the BJP chief’s election by early next year. The process is long, and polls will be held at block, district, and state levels.
Last week, Nadda initiated the process leading up to the election of the party President. He has named Rajya Sabha M.P. Laxman to oversee the polls. Vice-president Rekha Verma and MPs Sambit Patra and Naresh Bansal will assist Laxman. The choice of the new President is vital to keep up the momentum. It is in the process of adding another nine crore members, which is an ambitious target.
Nadda presided over the party and oversaw the Assembly and Lok Sabha 2024 polls. BJP won some and lost some. In the Lok Sabha, the BJP fell short of a majority, and Modi had taken the help of J.D. (U) and TDP to form the current coalition government. Nadda, a gentile and polite person, had avoided confrontation with the top Duo Modi- Shah. The BJP is looking for another Nadda, while the RSS wants an independent person who is not in awe of the duo.
The election process is meticulous and lengthy. At least 20 state executive members must propose the name. The candidate should be experienced and hold positions at the gross root level. Members from at least four states must second the proposal.
Members of national and state executive are eligible to vote. Significantly, the BJP President has been chosen by consensus, not by contest. Every time, only one candidate filed the nomination and was elected unopposed.
Over a dozen names have been doing the rounds in the past few days. They include Cabinet ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajnath Singh, and Maharashtra leader Devendra Fadnavis. There are many more names, and each has plus and minus points.
Modi-Shah would prefer a person they can work with; RSS would like someone with political experience capable of functioning independently.
There are many challenges for the new BJP President. The first is to keep the party united and devoid of groupism and factionalism.
The second is to get the party to face the Assembly polls. The third is to take everyone along. Many new members have joined the party. The fourth is addressing complacency.
The BJP is the political wing of the RSS. Since the party’s birth in 1980, RSS has helped the party grow with a comfortable relationship. It ‘lent’ pracharaks to the BJP. The RSS also deputated a senior pracharak to the BJP as a general secretary who acted as a coordinator. It is through this route that Narendra Modi reached the top in 2014.
But now, there are rumoured to be some differences between the parent organisation and its political wing. The BJP failed to secure a simple majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls partly because the RSS did not help fully during the election campaign. This was clear from some recent remarks by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. He said in Pune last month” “We should not consider ourselves as God. Let people decide if there is God in you”. Party insiders interpret these remarks, claiming that the RSS would like someone not in awe of Modi to succeed Nadda. The RSS also does not like the cult personally built around Prime Minister Modi.
The RSS always had a crucial role in choosing the BJP president and the major players in the national executive.
Last month, the two sides met at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence as part of the consultation process. Amit Shah and B.L. Santhosh represented the BJP and the RSS secretary, Dattatreya Hosabale, and Arun Kumar from the RSS. During the 5-hour meeting, they discussed several names. Tradition, so far, is that the RSS does not suggest specific names for the President. The names come from the BJP, and the RSS endorses them.
The question is whether a consensus would be achieved and the contest avoided. The two sides at the end might follow the ‘give and take ‘ approach and zero in on a single name. Between now and December, there is enough time to find a suitable candidate acceptable to the RSS and the BJP. Neither Narendra Modi nor Mohan Bhagwat can afford a rift on the issue as the opposition led by Rahul Gandhi is on the offensive. (IPA Service)
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