Modi cabinet done, focus now on whether Amit Shah will be BJP Prez

Will Amit Shah, the man credited with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s astounding success in Uttar Pradesh where the party won 73 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats on offer, be the next president of the party? A rejig of the party is now on the cards, unavoidable in the immediate short term owing to the entire top brass of the party making it to the Narendra Modi government. Not only is BJP president Rajnath Singh now Union Minister for Home Affairs, but three party vice-presidents and three national general secretaries are also now part of the government. These include Jual Oram, Uma Bharti and Smriti Irani, all ministers as well as party VPs, and Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot and Dharmendra Pradhan, all three party national general secretaries. In addition, BJP treasurer Piyush Goel and spokespersons Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar are also ministers in the Modi government. [caption id=“attachment_1544855” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Amit Shah is seen along with Mulayam Singh Yadav at the swearing-in ceremony. AP[/caption] According to a report in The Indian Express, “Given the party’s long-held one man-one post principle, these organisational leaders joining the government necessitates organisational change at the central and state level.” The front runner for the party presidentship, according to reports, is JP Nadda, though there is also speculation on whether Shah may be drafted as president to replicate the resounding success of the party in Uttar Pradesh elsewhere in the country. Already, reports have said Amit Shah is now the most sought after BJP leader in states such as Maharashtra where Assembly elections are coming up later this year. A BJP leader was quoted in this Hindustan Times report as saying Shah has emerged as a strong probable candidate from among the remaining office-bearers of the party, having won rich praise for his work in UP from the party as well as from RSS. “The only negative that could spoil his chances, party leaders say, were some pending cases relating to his tenure as the Gujarat home minister,” the report said. Against that backdrop, there is a camp in the party that is instead pushing for Nadda, an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) veteran and a former RSS pracharak. In comparison to Shah, Nadda is considered a low-profile candidate, which may not be a problem for a party that will anyway project Shah as the man with the Midas touch. A low-profile party president will also suit Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would hardly want a second power centre emerging in the party.