After two consecutive victories in the general elections and just over six years of majority rule, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose a new team to take it to the polls in 2024. Jagat Prakash Nadda, who succeeded Amit Shah as president of the match in January 2020, his team announced last week, and the delay was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nadda later told reporters that the party had tried to “reach out to all regions … sectors of society” and ensure “a generational shift” while recognizing “talent.”
The composition of the new team demonstrated an attempt to prepare a group of younger leaders to succeed those of the Narendra Modi-Shah generation, but it also sent the signal that very few would be allowed to take root. It also sent the message that ideological purity did not have great consequences, or was no longer possible, and that a large number of newcomers had organizational responsibilities. And, in keeping with the BJP’s growing ambitions, the leadership, in its elections, took into account not only the states that will soon head to the polls, but the areas where the party hopes to expand, visible in the larger regional region . representation.
Those who found a place in the new team, party sources stressed, were thoroughly scrutinized, as has been the practice of the Modi-Shah duo, who have their own methods of “monitoring” party members, and were approved by the general secretary (organization) BL Santhosh (who represents the RSS in the party). But it was not a list that immediately provoked surprise or amazement.
In the years when the Shah led the party, officials did not need a lot of political skills, beyond being able to carry out orders diligently, because everything was micromanaged by the party president. The personable Nadda, although a trusted and experienced colleague of Modi and Shah, has so far not shown similar dynamism.
Until now, one could have assumed that Shah would be available to provide guidance. But party sources said Shah’s recent outbreak of ill health is causing concern, and until that matter is resolved, it would be difficult to assess how much attention the Union Interior Minister could pay to party affairs.
In BJP circles, the reorganization of the party is also seen as a harbinger of possible changes in the Union council of ministers, and perhaps some of those who have been removed will settle into the government.
JP Nadda (center) with Narendra Modi (I) and Amit Shah. Photo: PTI
High profile exits
The departure of high-profile general secretaries Ram Madhav, P. Muralidhar Rao, Anil Jain and Saroj Pande has attracted the most attention: Party members are divided on whether they have been eliminated over differences with the leadership in the way they operate or if it is simply in line with Modi-Shah’s principle of not allowing anyone to get too comfortable in any position. Dharmendra Pradhan and Prakash Javadekar are no longer general secretaries, but they hold key positions in the Union cabinet. Of the surviving secretaries-general Kailash Vijayvargiya, Arun Singh, and Bhupendra Yadav, the latter is the man to be reckoned with. Yadav, along with former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, is currently in charge of the upcoming polls in Bihar – a favorite of Amit Shah, party sources say they are grooming him for the party’s highest post.
Many of the new general secretaries, who will be in charge of different states, do not inspire much confidence. Tarun Chugh, for example, failed to win a seat in the 2012 and 2017 assembly elections in Punjab and was co-head of the party when the party was defeated at the Delhi polls. Similarly, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, after facing two successive defeats in the 2008 and 2013 assembly elections in Delhi, was appointed a deputy for Rajya Sabha earlier this year. D. Purandeswari, daughter of the late NT Rama Rao, matinee idol and founder of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was a minister in the Manmohan Singh government, but resigned from Congress before the 2014 elections in Lok Sabha. She fought in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a BJP candidacy from different constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and lost both times. Will she be able to face her brother-in-law, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu?
After the party president and general secretaries, the treasurer position is the most significant: Vice-president positions are largely ceremonial in nature. Former party treasurer Piyush Goyal, now a key central minister, has been replaced by Rajesh Agarwal, a former finance minister in Uttar Pradesh. His appointment, party sources say, is both a nod to the Banyan community in UP, where Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath has been criticized for favoring only members of his Thakur community, and for controlling Arvind Kejriwal, also a Banyan. , in Delhi.
The leader of the BJP, Bhupendra Yadav. Photo: Facebook / Bhupenndrayadavbjp
Desire to expand the electoral footprint
The party’s desire to expand its electoral footprint is visible in its emphasis on naming those from the northeast and south of the country. For the first time, the party has a secretary general from the northeast, Assam’s deputy Lok Sabha Dilip Saikia. In addition, M. Chuba Ao from Nagaland is one of the party’s new vice presidents, while Mmhonlumo Kikon, also from Nagaland, is one of the 23 new party spokesmen.
South India is also in the spotlight: Madhav and Rao have been replaced as general secretaries by CT Ravi, who is currently a cabinet minister in Karnataka, and D. Purandeshwari from Andhra Pradesh. Tejasvi Surya, 29, has replaced Poonam Mahajan as director of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha. Swayamsewak, a lawyer and first-time MP from Bengaluru South, has been in the news for his controversial, unrestricted and community-charged statements. His appointment is an indication of the direction the party wants its youth wing and, indeed, perhaps, its representatives to take. K. Laxman from Telangana will direct the OBC Morcha.
Other officials from the south are AP Abdulla Kutty (vice president) from Kerala, Satya Kumar (secretary) from Andhra Pradesh, Rajiv Chandrashekhar (spokesperson) from Karnataka and Tom Vadakkan (spokesperson) from Kerala. Kutty and Vadakkan are also expected to connect with the Muslim and Christian communities in Kerala, where the minority vote is significant.
Muslims represent four of the 70 officials: in addition to Kutty, Jamal Siddiqui heads the Morcha Minority, while former Union Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Syed Zafar Islam have made the list of spokespersons.
Bengal gets special attention
West Bengal, which is heading to the polls next year, has also received special attention. Mukul Roy, the right-hand man of Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee, has been appointed vice president and will make decisions in the state unit. He is credited with helping the BJP win 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. At the same time, Anupam Hazra, another former Trinamool congressional deputy that Roy recruited to the BJP, was appointed national secretary.
But former West Bengal BJP chief Rahul Sinha, the outgoing team’s national secretary, has been completely eliminated, despite spending four decades in the match. And Lok Sabha MP Raju Bista, and a relatively new participant in the party, has been appointed as one of the national spokespersons in hopes that he will help consolidate the party’s Gorkha base in the state. The changes read as a signal to others on the Trinamool that if they are willing to jump ship, they will be accommodated.
Mukul Roy. Photo: PTI / Archives
Some attention has been paid to balancing the power equations in the states: so former Maharashtra ministers Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde (who did not get along with former CM Devendra Fadnavis) have been accommodated as secretaries, while Mahila Morcha president in the outgoing team, Vijaya Rahatkar, has been appointed secretary.
Of the best known officials in the old team, OP Mathur and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, both older, have been replaced, as well as Mahajan (the daughter of the late Pramod Mahajan), who headed BJP Yuva Morcha.
Of the 13 women on the team, there are five vice presidents, a general secretary, three secretaries and four spokespersons. Former Prime Minister Vasundhara Raje is one of the five vice presidents.
Amit Malviya, Head of the IT and Social Cell, has been hired for injecting new life into BJP’s IT and social media. Anil Baluni, a favorite of Modi-Shah, has been elevated to the position of chief spokesperson for the party, a position previously held by the late Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad. His team of 23 spokespersons is a curious mix of former ministers, former officials, deputies, academics, technocrats and newcomers.
Smita Gupta is a senior journalist.
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