What's next for the BJP: Assembly elections, RSS pointsman, more Amit Shah

It’s still about a fortnight before the BJP gets a new party president, but with Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting senior leaders to discuss party affairs, the focus is already on rejuvenating the party. The aim is to strengthen it in preparation for Assembly elections in some states, set up new bases where the party has only a marginal presence and set the stage in general for a longer NDA rule. [caption id=“attachment_1574349” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BJP General Secretary Amit Shah. Reuters[/caption] On Monday, the party finalised its pick for the post of the Delhi BJP president, a key position given that Delhi likely to go to polls soon. The post is currently held by former BJP candidate for Delhi’s chief ministership, Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is now a minister in Modi’s council. A report in The Economic Times said the party has finalised the name of Satish Upadhyay as next BJP Delhi president. Upadhyay is currently elected to the municipal corporation and is chairman of the standing committee. Even as the party ties up loose ends in its plan for forming a government in Delhi, the critical position of the leader of the BJP’s campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly elections coming up later this year remains vacant following the demise of Union Minister Gopinath Munde. As reported by Firstpost Munde’s death leaves a huge gap as the party not only lost its only chief ministerial candidate in Maharashtra but is also now likely to cede some ground to its highly assertive alliance partner Shiv Sena. Reports have suggested that the BJP is now strategising carefully for the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls this year, and the likelihood that the BJP will go into both states’ campaigns without a CM candidate is fairly high. Party workers who have pinned their hopes on Amit Shah becoming the next party president expect that this could lead to significant gains for the party in both these states – the BJP has occupied the opposition benches in both states for several years and could do with the near-miraculous reversal of fortunes that Shah engineered in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election. Several reports have suggested that Shah is the frontrunner to lead the BJP, alongside JP Nadda, a Rajya Sabha MP from Himachal Pradesh. There is also speculation regarding who will be picked to contest the Lok Sabha bypoll from Mainpuri (the seat vacated by Mulayam Singh Yadav who also won from Azamgarh). The BJP is expected to field a strong candidate, with the SP candidate likely to be from the Samajwadi Party’s first family. This bypoll and others to a slew of Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are high on the BJP’s agenda for party-building and the effort will be led once again, no doubt, by Amit Shah. This will be a highly symbolic political contest between the two main rival parties in Uttar Pradesh, the party in power in the state versus the man who decimated it in the Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, a rejig could be underway in the RSS too, in keeping with the needs of the new government and the party’s sharpened focus on Assembly elections and party-building. A report in The Economic Times says RSS Joint General Secretary Krishna Gopal could soon take over as the pointsman between the Sangh and the party, a role played by Suresh Soni until now. “Krishna Gopal and Dattatreya Hosabale have shared some of his burden in the recent past. Gopal may now step into Soni’s shoes,” a source was quoted as saying. The report said several leaders in the BJP including LK Advani had been opposed to Soni’s continuing in the position for so long. Soni’s decisions reportedly benefitted one particular group of leaders, leaving others dissatisfied, the report said.