Two recent organisational appointments in the Bharatiya Janata Party have led to feverish whispers in the corridors of power as well as among those who tend to the proverbial grapevine. Nitin Nabin, a leader with a relatively low-key profile, was elevated as the working president of the BJP: Mr Nabin, the official narrative says, is being rewarded for his organisational acumen. His elevation is also being projected as the BJP’s willingness to not only acknowledge merit but also embrace generational transition in the realm of leadership. Significantly, a few hours before the notification of Mr Nabin’s appointment, Pankaj Chaudhary was anointed president of the BJP’s state unit in Uttar Pradesh. And therein hangs a tale, one that exposes the bitter rivalry within the saffron ecosystem even though the BJP takes care to deny that it, unlike other parties, is vulnerable to inner feuding.
The word is that the twin appointments ought to be seen as a triumph for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah over their rivals in the BJP’s internal power dynamics. It must be pointed out in this context that the selection of the successor of J.P. Nadda, the outgoing party president, had been an inordinately long process because the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, mindful of the BJP’s underperformance in the last general election, wanted its own leader at the helm who would be able to stand up to Mr Modi and his principal lieutenant. Instead, Mr Modi and Mr Shah, buoyed by the BJP’s spectacular successes in a string of recent assembly elections, have now foisted on the party Mr Nabin who is widely believed to be the proverbial rubber stamp. This is not what the RSS desires. The imprint of the duo has also deepened in the BJP’s party architecture in UP. Yogi Adityanath is evidently keen to carve out a wider presence for himself in the BJP after Mr Modi’s era ends.
Mr Shah, lacking in Mr Adityanath’s aura among the BJP’s core constituency, is hoping to checkmate the UP chief minister by manning the organisation with his chosen soldiers: Mr Chaudhary is known to be a rival of Mr Adityanath. Of course, the outcome of these rivalries within the BJP is going to be decided by an external factor: the BJP’s continuing dominance of India’s electoral turf. A change of fortune there could bring about a change in fortune of a number of its stalwarts in the near future.