RSS leadership finally leaves the choice of New BJP President to Modi

 

By Arun Srivastava

Once again Narendra Modi prevailed upon the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat not to force their decision upon the BJP leadership to replace the current incumbent J P Nadda with a new chief of their choice. Though the general opinion of the delegates, prant pracharaks, which got manifested at the three day Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak Baithak on July 4 to 6 , was for immediate induction of the new face,, the RSS core committee preferred to give Prime Minister the proper time to make his choice of new BJP national President. Narendra Modi will be taking the final decision at the proper time.

On June 28, only a week ahead of the three day national meet, Nadda had a closed door meeting with the RSS general secretary (sarkaryawah) Dattatreya Hosabale and conveyed the desire of the Prime Minister… Nadda, for public consumption, had told Hosabale that the BJP would be able to have quorum only after elections for the state presidents are completed. Without a full quorum it would not be possible to elect a new national chief. He said organisational overhaul is underway following the Sangh’s ideology and expectedly it would be completed soon.

The insiders however express surprise at Hosabale adopting a non-conformist attitude towards Modi. The RSS asked the BJP leadership to hasten up process of the long-pending internal elections across state units. Dragging the issue of the election has been telling upon the psyche of the RSS leaders. Some leaders though said that the meeting discussed the potential shortlist of leaders for the top job. The consensus has been that Modi should be entrusted with the task to finalise the name. A leader said; “RSS usually does not interfere with the normal day to day functioning of any of the Sangh Parivar affiliates. It is for the BJP leaders to decide who will be their president”.

Obliquely the RSS has decided to give a free hand to Modi in the matter in spite of the fact the prant pracharaks were not satisfied with the style of functioning of Modi and his giving too much of leverage to the leaders who do not have RSS pedigree. The sources also point out that there is no need to give more time to BJP for formalising the organisational elections. They point out state unit elections had been more or less been completed in 32 of the BJP’s 36 organisational units. Twenty-nine were announced last December and three—Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Maharashtra—were announced recently. On July 3, Samik Bhattacharya was announced as the new BJP president of Bengal..

Non-completion of electoral process in one or two states certainly would not create much problem. For a year the BJP leadership has been citing the non-completion of the electoral process for selecting the next national president of the BJP. These RSS leaders point out why Modi or Amit Shah did not strictly adhere to the rules at the time of selection of Nadda just after Amit Shah put in his paper. These leaders see a design behind this. According to them Modi and Shah intend to continue to have a strong grip on the BJP even when they are not in top organizational posts.

The RSS nonetheless have managed to have its say in selecting presidents of state units of its choice. Strategically Modi and Shah preferred to appease them with an eye on their future moves. A mollified RSS would not pose a serious obstacle to their move to have their man as the new president. So far the turncoats have not been made the presidents of the state units. Nadda cited the delay in completion of the election process in three states, which are really critical for BJP, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat. The national BJP has yet not succeeded in evolving consensus in these states due to highest level of factionalism. While Modi-Shah are keen to have their person, the stalwart from Karnataka B S Yediyurappa and UP strongman Yogi Adityanath are staking for their own men. Amongst these two warring factions RSS is steadfastly pushing its own nominee. RSS feels that the candidates pushed by the faction leaders lack ideological dedication and this will adversely affect the organisational functioning.

The RSS leaders also confide that perks and freebies offered to the RSS pracharaks by Modi have adversely affected the functioning of the organisation. They have lost their legacy of selfless devotion. RSS earlier used to emphasise that the new president would not be a proxy. The RSS leaders maintain that the new president must be a person who can lead the party at the 2029 parliamentary election.

RSS leaders feel no doubt Modi worked hard to implement saffron agenda but at the same time his cult-centric model has harmed party much. The BJP strictly adheres to the cadre centric principle. Though RSS at the Baithak has come out with the claim that youths and students are keen to join the organisation, the sources say that the scenario is really not so bright. Youths are not too willing to join RSS as a feeling prevails among them that it has been preaching anti modern practices. This has scared the leadership. This is for this reason that RSS has decided to hold special programs with a focus on youth participation in view of the Shatabdi Varsh. It will launch special outreach programmes targeting the youth at the district level to enhance their engagement with Sangh’s work and values. Each Prant has already begun planning youth-centric initiatives.

In recent months Mohan Bhagwat had made several overtures to academics and intellectuals but they are reluctant to join. Keeping this mood, RSS has decided to organise Vishesh Samvad (Special Dialogue) with these people with Bhagwat in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. Meanwhile the reports presented by Pracharaks and karyakartas at the Baithak on Sangh’s work revealed some gaps in functioning. The meet decided to take remedial action to fill those gaps. (IPA Service)

 

The post RSS leadership finally leaves the choice of New BJP President to Modi appeared first on Daily Excelsior.

News