Change of Guard in BJP

By choosing a relatively little-known, young party worker from Bihar for the post of its national president, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has surprised many in the political circle. The choice clearly indicates that the party is keen on building future leadership instead of banking on the present leaders, which has the possibility of facing anti-incumbency in 2029 general elections. As a matter of fact, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have taken over the reins, the party has been surprising us by their choices. For instance, the BJP has made it a practice to change nearly one-third of the candidates in the assembly polls to get rid of the anti-incumbency sentiments, helping it to register impressive victories. It has also adopted similar tactics while selecting the chief ministers in states where it is in power. For example, in Delhi, Rakha Gupta has got the nod of party’s central leadership although many party stalwarts had started hectic campaigning for the coveted post, after making a comeback after nearly three decades.

The party is expected to follow the same principle in the upcoming assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry to attract the electorates with a young and unblemished leadership. For instance, at present the party is struggling to snatch power from Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, where it had never tested success. According to many political observers, despite an improved showing at the hustings, the BJP’s dream of capturing the state may remain unfulfilled this time too due to its organisational weakness. In such a situation, the blame for the failure will be on the established leaders, rather than on new leadership which have just ascended the throne. Their real test will begin only in 2029.Secondly, by appointing a young leader, the party has successfully buried any chances of internal squabbling as many names were doing rounds for this coveted post. It goes to the credit of the present leadership that not only they had allowed factional feuds to intensify over the choice of the new party president, but also bought enough time for the new incumbent to firmly settle in a chair which is full of thorns. In this context, it should be noted that the party had the option to go for established leaders like Shivraj Singh Chauhan or Nitin Gadkari to the said post as both of them have already proved their organisational skills. As a matter of fact, their followers had even started lobbying in their favour vigorously. But in the end, all such lobbying came to a naught as the party leadership has decided to pick a non-familiar face to bury any chances of enhanced factionalism within the party, at least for a couple of years, as the new president will also need time to prepare his own team. So, it’s a win-win situation for both BJP and its new president Nitin Nabin.