By Sushil Kutty
The Bharatiya Janata Party has changed four state unit presidents in an organizational rejig designed with general elections 2024 in mind. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Punjab now have new state unit presidents whether BJP cadres in the four states like it or not. The organizational rejig is the doing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah with party President JP Nadda helping with a shake of the head here and a shake of the head there.
As everybody in the BJP, and outside the BJP know, Modi and Shah have a stranglehold on the BJP along with Modi’s unrivaled control over the central government. Right now Modi and Shah are busy putting in place their plans to wreak havoc in opposition parties, which started with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and might encircle Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and, perhaps, Lalu Yadav’s RJD.
There’s talk the Congress government of Karnataka is also in Modi/Shah’s crosshairs. Both have been holding late evening stealth meetings with dark forebodings for opposition parties. It appears, and not without reason, that the last nearly 10 years have been spent by central investigating agencies in unearthing dirt on opposition leaders. And now those leaders are being rounded up to engineer defections and splits.
But behind the bravado, and the wrecking ball, is the double anti-incumbency and the decadence of a failing leadership, which is also authoritarian. So much so, the BJP’s top leadership is not confident how the party will fare in assembly and general elections? The Karnataka assembly election loss confirmed that things have gone very wrong. Such that Modi and Shah are no longer sure even on election issues.
The party is vacillating between Hindutva and the BJP’s own brand of a hybrid secularism which is as counterfeit as the tin-pot dictator of a banana republic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pasmanda Muslim outreach and the party’s total reliance on central welfare schemes, targeting 80 crore Indians month after month, to land votes have both been proven suspect.
The watershed Karnataka assembly election was the litmus test. A defeat in Madhya Pradesh, and another one in Chhattisgarh, is the BJP’s greatest fear at this point in time . Madhya Pradesh will be fought on a blatantly Hindutva wicket, which is not to say that Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan will not be difficult electoral terrain.
In these states, too, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has managed to queer the pitch with his newfound zeal to come out as an all-inclusive secular leader in the mould of Mahatma Gandhi. Modi is walking a tightrope with a roiling Hindutva river below and an unwavering and hostile secular sky above. The “organisational restructuring of regional units” is geared for the 2024 general elections with the unspoken caveat that Narendra Modi will be third time Prime Minister.
But the organizational reorganization isn’t all in fine fettle. Replacing a popular and hardworking Bandi Sanjay as Telangana BJP head with G Kishan Reddy, who is currently Union Tourism minister, isn’t cadre-friendly. Bandi Sanjay’s hard won experience handling the Telangana scenario is all lost as G Kishen Reddy will fumble to start afresh.
In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, NTR’s daughter D Purandeswari is a rusty replacement, strengthening talk that the BJP doesn’t mind giving the upper hand to KCR’s BRS and Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP. There could be a hidden double quid pro quo involving these parties and the BJP. But then, what happens to the ambitious Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party?
The replacements in Punjab and Jharkhand are no less meaningful. Both Sunil Jakhar and Babulal Marandi are recent entrants to the BJP. The idea seems to be to give preference to “outsiders”. This is fomenting resentment. But while Jharkhand is an attainable target, Punjab is outside the BJP’s pale even with Sunil Jakhar at the head. The BJP must be aiming for Punjab’s Hindutva votes and a few MP seats to put Modi in the PM’s chair in 2024.
Narendra Modi’s reelection as Prime Minister for a third straight time is the single-most important task given to BJP leaders at all levels of the party. Rejig of state units is part of the assignment. A Bandi Sanjay may be a great cadre-man, but he lacks in getting along with his peers. Also, a lot of discussion and thought went into these changes. They were announced after Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with his Council of Ministers. Each of the new state presidents have their own strengths. For example, Etela Rajender, the new election management committee chairperson in Telangana, is an OBC leader.
Sunil Jakhar is expected to get the Hindu votes in line. He joined the BJP after quitting the Congress. His hate for the Congress, especially for Navjot Singh Sidhu, is expected to work for the BJP’s benefit. In Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi knows the BJP like the back of his hand. Modi and Shah believe Marandi will deliver Jharkhand’s MP seats to make Modi Prime Minister again.
Bottom-line: As BJP breaks opposition parties in a concerted and motivated drive, the reorganization of its state units has become a necessity. High-profile defectors have to be accommodated and these are also politicians who can win Lok Sabha seats for Modi. A Praful Patel and a Bandi Sanjay Kumar are more likely to be victorious than ordinary BJP politicians. Next in the cards is cabinet reshuffle and that is also part of the rejig. Guess what, one name being bandied about is that of Malayalam superstar Suresh Gopi! (IPA Service)
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