BJP chief Amit Shah turns to former RSS workers, young faces to form team

Before Amit Shah started from Delhi for his public rally in Jind, Haryana — where senior Congress leader and one of the most prominent Jat faces Chaudhary Birender Singh was to join the BJP — he finished with the first big task that he was mandated to do as the new party president, constituting his team. Given BJP’s tremendous performance in the parliamentary elections and exponential growth in several parts of the country where it didn’t have much of organisational footprint, Shah’s task of constituting his new team was more challenging. The composition of a new set of national office bearers – 11 Vice-presidents, eight general secretaries, four joint-general secretaries (all from RSS), 14 secretaries, 10 spokespersons and heads of five ‘morchas’ – gains additional significance from the fact that they would straightaway plunge into the coming round of Assembly elections. Haryana, Maharastra, Kharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, possibly Delhi go to polls soon. Forming his team was also important because the same team should be there when the 2019 parliamentary elections takes place. One general secretary’s post has been kept vacant for now. [caption id=“attachment_1667491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Amit Shah in a file photo. AFP[/caption] Shah has to first serve as president for the one-and-half years of Rajnath Singh’s remaining term and then begin another three-year term, as stipulated in the party constitution. A look at the list newly appointed office bearers reveals that Shah has opted for younger faces, (apart from those in category of vice presidents), some of whom had been unsung so far, but have proven credentials in the internal organisational structure. After all, Shah’s own elevation, youngest ever to be party chief, marked a generational shift. A good mix of caste and regional balance, of course, had to be there. What stands out in composition of the central office bearers is the exclusion of Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi. He was general secretary in Rajnath Singh’s team. He also had the distinction of being the youngest general secretary. Two reasons are cited for Gandhi to be dropped from the coveted organisational position. First, he didn’t really have a smooth relationship with Narendra Modi and Shah. Second, the BJP is now following an unwritten rule that two persons from same family should not be given prominent positions. Since his mother Maneka Gandhi is a cabinet minister, Varun’s name had to be omitted. Rajathsan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant was not made a minister by Modi because of the same reason. Three-time Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur too was not made a minister despite the fact that his father Prem Kumar Dhumal was no longer Himachal Pradesh chief minister (BJP had lost to Congress in assembly elections). Thakur is continuing as the Yuva Morcha chief for the third consecutive time. Nine prominent office bearers of the previous dispensation have become ministers — Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot and Dharmendra Pradhan (formerly general secretaries) Uma Bharti, Smriti Irani and Jual Oram (formerly vice-president), treasurer Piyush Goel, spokespersons Prakash Javdekar and Nirmala Sitharaman. As was expected, from the previous team three general secretaries JP Nadda, Rajiv Pratap Rudi and Murlidhar Rao have retained their positions. The induction of Ram Madhav, who had so far been the RSS face in the media, as general secretary is significant. Murlidhar Rao, also from the RSS, used to head the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. With Ramlal as general secretary (organisation), the number of RSS nominees in the list of general secretary goes up to three. Another new appointee to general secretary who has a a strong RSS rooting is Agra MP Ram Shanakar Katheriya. Saroj Pandey, party MP from Chattisgarh who has made her mark over the years, is the lone woman representative. Bhupendra Yadav’s elevation to the general secretary post too follows the same pattern. Yadav, a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan is a diligent party worker with strong RSS connections. He was recently appointed co-incharge for the Jharkhand elections and secretary for party affairs in the Rajya Sabha. The fact that the number of joint general secretaries, all of whom are RSS representatives, have doubled from two to four is indicative of Sangh’s greater presence in BJP affairs. The recent appointment of five BJP leaders as Governors too had indicated an RSS stamp over the selection process, as only those who had strong and continued affiliation with the Sangh were named. Karnataka BJP leader BS Yeddurappa has been made vice-president. Despite having corruption allegations against him, he has proved that he has a solid social support base. Him being made vice president now means that he wouldn’t directly take over BJP’s reigns in Karnataka. The two Muslim faces of the party — Muktar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain — will remain party vice president and spokesman respectively. The list of secretaries saw two interesting inductions in Sidharth Nath Singh and Srikant Sharma. Singh had previously been the convenor of the media cell of the BJP and is the grandson of Lal Bahadur Shasri. He was also a serious contender for a party ticket from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh. He has been one of the popular BJP faces on TV. Meanwhile, Sharma is the current convenor of the media cell. He too was a contender for the Mathura seat and had done his homework, but the seat finally went to Hema Malini. Sharma has now been rewarded for his efficient management of the media cell. Similarly formal inclusion of Sambit Patra, Nalin Kohli, GVL Narsimha Rao, Anil Baluni and Lalita Kumarmanglam in the list of spokespersons shows that the BJP would now rely on younger faces. Baluni is being moved to Delhi from Uttrakhand, where he proved his credentials as a spokesperson. He was also one of the backroom boys in Varanasi for Modi’s elections. Lalita Kumarmanglam is from Tamil Nadu and would be expected to fill in the place of Nirmala Sitharam. Shahnawaz Hussain, Meenakshi Lekhi, Sudhanshu Trivedi, MJ Akbar and Vijay Sonkar Shastri will continue to be spokespersons. There is a definite sense of jubilation among those who have been inducted or retained in Amit Shah’s team. Though there wouldn’t be any fireworks, but the fact that Shah has unhindered proximity to Modi means that the BJP headquarters wouldn’t be a mere appendage to the Modi government. The team would play a complimentary role to the government and it has made the moment more joyous than usual for the whole lot of new appointees.