The search for a new BJP president might seem to be the result of incumbent JP Nadda joining the new Union Council of Ministers, but the process would have kicked in regardless as Nadda’s tenure at the helm had come to an end anyway.
Nadda was made the BJP’s working president following the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was later elevated as the full-time BJP president in January 2020 when Amit Shah joined the Narendra Modi cabinet as Union Home Minister. The three-year term of Nadda was to end last year on January 20, but the BJP National Executive unanimously extended it till June 2024, avoiding any leadership changes in an election year.
Now that the Lok Sabha elections are over, the result is out and ministers have taken oath, all eyes are on the BJP President’s post. Who will succeed Nadda?
TWO NAMES IN THE RACE MADE MINISTERS
The two names being actively discussed in the BJP for the party president post can now be ruled out, given that both of them have been inducted in the new Narendra Modi 3.0 cabinet. The two leaders are Dharmendra Pradhan and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Pradhan was born in Odisha’s Talcher, started his political career as an Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activist in 1983 and went on to hold key organisation and cabinet responsibilities. With a post-graduate degree in Anthropology, Pradhan is cool-headed, a team player, non-controversial and from the East — a key focus area of the BJP along with the South. But with Odisha already in the BJP kitty and Pradhan’s cabinet induction, he can be ruled out as much as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, an OBC leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister known to make policy decisions benefitting the women of the state.
FOUR STILL IN THE RACE
Meanwhile, other names are being actively discussed to be in the race for BJP’s top job, a post previously held by LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Nitin Gadkari and Amit Shah, among others. The most talked about name is that of BJP’s general secretary Vinod Tawde, a former minister in the Maharashtra government who has become one of the most influential general secretaries in the BJP after BL Santosh. Tawde is young, understands the ‘sangathan’ (organisation), and is a Maratha.
K Laxman, another name doing the rounds, is BJP’s OBC Morcha chief. From Telangana, BJP’s next focus after Andhra, Laxman has also led the party as BJP state president. He has the right balance of being cool and being aggressive.
Another name believed to be in the race is Sunil Bansal. Presently, he is general secretary and in-charge of three states — West Bengal, Telangana and Odisha. However, it is his stint as General Secretary (Organisation) of Uttar Pradesh that made him a power centre in UP politics. In spite of having an RSS background, Bansal may face opposition from a section of the party leadership if his name comes up for consideration.
Om Mathur, a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan and protégé of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, too is believed to be in the race to be BJP national president. Mathur is known to cut to the point with a smile on his face. He has been a pracharak of the RSS and has been in-charge of Gujarat, PM Modi’s home state.
However, given how the BJP functions in its new avatar, the party may pull a surprise with a wild card entry. Nadda was first appointed first as acting president and hence his elevation was natural. There are no acting presidents in the BJP this time.
FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OF THE BJP?
With women voters defying caste and, sometimes, religious calculations, the BJP is also toying with the idea of having its first woman president. Afterall, it’s the BJP government that appointed Droupadi Murmu as India’s first Dalit woman President. The BJP also boasts of calling a special session of Parliament last year to pass the women’s reservation bill which will ensure that women occupy at least 33% of the seats in state Legislative Assemblies and the Lok Sabha.
With the participation of women voters increasing, their electoral worth has also increased. In 2009, turnout of women voters was 55.8%, lagging by more than four percentage points to the male turnout of 60.36%. But in this election, 312 million women voted. The gender gap in voting has almost closed, with both the male and women voter turnout at about 66%.
BJP leaders, meanwhile, remain reluctant in discussing the list of probables being discussed internally. “Ab dekhiye (let’s see)…,” they say. Faint whispers emerging from the saffron party circles suggest one name that could be in the running – Smriti Irani. The former Union minister is aggressive, multi-lingual and has a point to prove after losing the Amethi Lok Sabha seat after just one term to the non-Gandhi Congress candidate KL Sharma.
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