The sudden vacancy in the Vice-President’s post, amid the long delay in appointing a BJP president, has imposed on India’s ruling party the need to select candidates for the two positions carefully, keeping political and caste equations in mind.

The BJP leadership wants a new Vice-President elected by August-end and a new party president installed around the same time, party insiders said.

They said the Vice-President, who is ex-officio Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, needs to be a person with legislative experience and the political acumen to manage House proceedings.

If the party selects an upper caste leader for the job, then the next BJP president would likely be either an OBC or a Dalit.

The Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly is known to pay keen attention on the social identity of their candidates for key posts. Droupadi Murmu was widely publicised as the “first tribal woman” to be President of the country following her appointment
in 2022.

Modi and Shah had also hailed the election of the now out-of-favour Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice-President the same year as a proud moment for the country since a “kisan putra” (farmer’s son) had been installed in a high constitutional post.

The objective was to generate a favourable narrative among Jat farmers, who had joined Sikh farmers to spearhead a protracted agitation against three new central farm laws in 2020-21.

A meeting of the BJP’s highest decision-making body, the parliamentary board, is likely to be convened soon to pick the NDA’s candidate for Vice-President.

Sources said the candidate would be from the BJP but the name would be finalised in consultation with the NDA partners, given Modi’s dependence on allies in the current Lok Sabha.

The Election Commission has set the ball rolling for the Vice-President’s election and appointed the Rajya Sabha secretary-general as the returning officer.

The Vice-President is elected by an electoral college of MPs from both Houses, and the presence of all of them can be ensured by extending the monsoon session.

Some in the BJP believe that the session, scheduled to close on August 21, may be extended by a week to have a Vice-President elected.

As for the appointment of the next BJP president, it has been stuck because of a lack of consensus between the party leadership and the RSS.

The Sangh is learnt to be pressing for a “strong organisational leader” — as opposed to a “rubber stamp” for Modi and Shah — to prepare the party for the post-Modi era. But Modi and Shah are believed to be pushing for a BJP president of their choice to retain their grip over the party organisation.

“At the meeting to finalise the vice-presidential candidate, Prime Minister Modi is also likely to hold discussions to decide the next BJP president. The matter would then be taken up with the RSS leadership to resolve the issue,” a BJP insider said.

The BJP leadership has been learnt to have forwarded the names of two OBC Union ministers — education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and environment minister Bhupender Yadav — to the RSS.

The Sangh is apparently not too pleased with eithercandidate, but a “personal intervention” by Modi couldlead to a breakthrough, sources said.

“Modiji could personally reach out to the RSS leadership to resolve the stalemate. The choice of the next Vice-President could also be discussed with the RSS,” a BJP leader said.

The Sangh doesn’t concern itself with the running of the government but wants to control the party organisation.

Key RSS leaders are loaned as organisational general secretaries to the BJP at the central and state levels to ensure the party remains attached to the ideological parent.