Amit Shah was re-elected as BJP president on Sunday as top party veterans like Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi decided to stay away from the event.
Amit Shah was re-elected as BJP president on Sunday as top party veterans like Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi decided to stay away from the event. This will be Mr Shah’s first full term as BJP chief. He was elected unopposed with 17 nominations, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, in his favour. A large number of senior party leaders, including Union ministers, were present at the BJP headquarters at 11 Ashoka Road. Mr Shah was handed over a certificate by Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna, who was in charge of holding the election. After Mr Shah’s name was formally announced, Mr Modi, through a tweet, congratulated the new party president.
The absence of Mr Advani and Dr Joshi from the event only gave rise to speculation that the elders, who recently questioned the party’s functioning and were critical of its performance in the Bihar polls, were not happy with Mr Shah’s fresh term. Both Mr Advani and Dr Joshi are members of the party’s “Margdarshak Mandal”, that has officially not even met once. It could perhaps be the first time that Mr Advani has skipped such an event.
Mr Shah met party patriarch L.K. Advani Sunday evening and the BJP said he would call on former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Tuesday to seek their “blessings”.
Mr Shah, who was hailed for winning politically-crucial Uttar Pradesh for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when he was the party’s state in-charge, and the party’s winning streak in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana, also had to face criticism for its disastrous performance in Delhi and Bihar. In Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP for the first time formed the government with the PDP leading the alliance. Many political pundits had claimed that the loss of Bihar was a signal that the BJP had started losing its appeal and support base. The BJP claimed it had become the world’s largest political outfit after over 100 million new members had joined it. However, the Bihar election results only proved that the party’s mass appeal and Mr Modi’s charisma, which helped the BJP come to power at the Centre in 2014, was diminishing. Rumblings within the party also grew after the Bihar debacle.
The BJP’s disastrous performance also ended up uniting the Opposition, whose aftermath the ruling BJP has been facing in Parliament, with its key bills getting stalled.
With some key states going to the polls soon, including Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, Mr Shah’s skills will be put to the test. These are states now under non-NDA rule and, barring Assam, the BJP doesn’t have a strong organisational setup in the three other states. Mr Shah’s skills will also be put to the test in 2017 when UP will face Assembly elections. The BJP’s feedback about this state is not enthusiastic, with growing factionalism and a leadership crisis the key areas for Mr Shah and his team to address.
The BJP’s relationship with key allies like the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena is another issue that Mr Shah will face, specially when a majority of the saffron party’s Punjab unit wants to cut ties with the Akalis. The Sena, with which the BJP runs the Maharashtra government, does not miss a single chance to criticise its ally or the Narendra Modi government. A majority within the PDP also wants a rethink on its alliance with the BJP.
As per the BJP constitution, its president’s term is for three years and a president can get two consecutive terms. After Mr Shah was re-elected, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said he is the most capable person who is committed to the BJP’s ideology. “He is the most capable person, he has organisational ability, good strategies and above all, a commitment to our ideology,” Mr Naidu said.
At the BJP headquarters, party workers and leaders had started gathering since Sunday morning. Crackers were burst and sweets distributed when Mr Shah’s name was formally announced. Several posters congratulating Mr Shah in anticipation of his unopposed election as party president had been put up at several places.
With Mr Shah’s re-election, speculation is also rife that he will also go for an overhaul of his team to ensure better coordination with state units. Mr Shah has already been focusing in the South and the Northeast, where the party has supporters but no major votebank.
