New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to set the ball rolling on electing a new party president at a high-level meeting scheduled for 13-14 June, sources in the party told ThePrint.
The search for a new BJP president has been necessitated by the induction of incumbent Amit Shah as Home Minister in the new Narendra Modi government.
According to the sources, the BJP is planning to decide the dates for organisational polls in all states at the meeting, which will set the stage for the appointment of a new president.
The main contenders for the post include former Union minister J.P. Nadda and Rajya Sabha member Bhupender Yadav.
The meeting this week will be the first involving the entire organisation after the Lok Sabha elections.
It will be attended by chiefs and general secretaries (organisation) of the BJP’s state and Union Territory units. Apart from this, Shah will also meet national office-bearers on Thursday, 13 June.
A working president until polls conclude?
Shah’s three-year presidential tenure ended in January, but he was given an extension because of the Lok Sabha elections. This is Shah’s second term as BJP chief, a post he took over after predecessor Rajnath Singh joined the first Modi government as home minister.
The party is tight-lipped about whether a new chief will be elected before the assembly elections in the three states — Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand — later this year, but the party’s constitution dictates that organisational polls have to be completed in at least 50 per cent of the states for a new BJP chief to be elected.
“One school of thought is of the view that the current setup should not be changed as elections are to take place in three crucial states,” said a senior BJP leader. “At the same time, there are others who feel a working president can be appointed even as elections at the state unit level are held later.”
According to the party sources, one of the agendas of the meeting is to fix a deadline for states’ organisational polls, to ensure the process of the presidential election starts soon. Once the process of state-level polls is complete, the party can also start a fresh membership drive.
“The meeting will also chalk out strategies for starting new organisational programmes in election-bound states and work out the year-long organisational calendar to maintain the momentum of the Lok Sabha elections,” said another leader.
“For instance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Ranchi on 21 June for Yoga Day, while Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Haryana to galvanise the cadre,” the leader added.
Yet another party source said all central ministers are likely to be deputed to state capitals to hold press conferences and meetings about the first budget of the second Modi government, which is scheduled for 5 July.
In addition, the meeting may also see the party perform a stocktaking of the Lok Sabha results, particularly in the southern states, where the BJP was only able to make a mark in Telangana and Karnataka.
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