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BJP’s local units set to get new presidents
VP Ramalingam and K Beichhua were elected state unit presidents in Puducherry and Mizoram respectively on Monday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday named local unit chiefs in Puducherry and Mizoram, and set the ball rolling for similar elections in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, fuelling speculation that the process of picking a new national president is now on the anvil.
The term of the incumbent party chief, JP Nadda, ended in January last year, but the national executive committee in January 2024 extended his term till June 2025, in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
VP Ramalingam and K Beichhua were elected state unit presidents in Puducherry and Mizoram respectively on Monday.
One leader each in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh also filed their nomination for the election, as is prescribed by the party’s constitution.
Since, there is only one nominee in these four important states, the announcement of the next state unit chief is likely to be this week, said party leaders aware of the details.
So far, new appointments have been made in 16 states, while the process is yet to begin in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. As per the party’s constitution, the national president can be elected after elections are held in 50% of the states. India has 28 states and seven Union Territories.
“The process of electing a new president will begin with the filing of nominations…the process is usually unopposed as the party picks nominees through consensus,” said a party leader.
The new appointment is not only being made with an eye on the upcoming state elections in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but also with the next general election in mind, said the leader quoted above.
“The new president will be someone who is well established in the sangathan (organisation) with a hold on party issues, ideology and ability to take the allies along…” the leader said.
Ramchander Rao and PVN Madhav, who filed the nominations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively, are known for their hold over organisational issues. Rao’s nomination elicited a strong reaction from controversial lawmaker T Raja Singh, who resigned from the party, but senior leaders in Delhi downplayed the response and brushed aside concerns of factionalism in the state unit.
“Unfortunately, it appears that some individuals, driven by personal interests, have misled the central leadership and taken decisions by running the show from behind the curtain,” Singh in his resignation leader addressed to Telangana BJP unit chief G Kishan Reddy.
Reacting to Singh’s allegations, senior BJP leader and Union minister of state for home Bandi Sanjay, said, “As a disciplined soldier of the party, he should accept the choice of the party national leadership. He cannot violate the party line.”
In Maharashtra, working president and four-term MLA Ravindra Chavan is set to be elected in place of Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who is now a state minister. In Uttarakhand, the incumbent state unit chief and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt is set to begin a new term.
“Chavan is a four-time legislator and a long-time colleague in the party. We are happy he has filed his nomination,” Maharashtra chief minister and party leader Devendra Fadnavis said. Chavan began his political in 2007 when he was elected as a corporator in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. He was later elected to the state assembly in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024. and was recently inducted as a cabinet minister with the PWD portfolio.
In Andhra Pradesh, Madhav is set to replace Daggubati Purandeswari, who was the first woman president of the state unit and a former national general secretary. She is also the sister-in-law of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The party has stuck to its social engineering formula; while Rao and Bhatt are counted among the so-called upper caste, Madhav is from the backward classes and Chavan is a Maratha.
