Finally, BJP chief J.P. Nadda has reshuffled his team at the party headquarters after taking office in January this year. For the most part he was stuck with Amit Shah’s old team, though a few name-plates have been changed. He hasv retained three general secretaries including the low-profile Bhupender Yadav who will have much lesser time to spend with his books given the rise in his political graph. The erudite Yadav is known to be Amit Shah’s key pointsman in the party and he is the one trusted with all the crucial tasks; sometimes his in tray is even more full than that of the BJP chief himself. Anil Baluni who retains his post as the media chief and Amit Malviya as the IT Cell in-charge are also key players in the Amit Shah scheme of things. And despite this being a Nadda reshuffle, the Amit Shah scheme very much matters.
Poll-going states have also been taken into account and so Mukul Roy, Anupam Roy and Raju Biswa from West Bengal get a place, as do Tom Vaddakan and A.P. Abdullakutty from Kerala. The articulate Guruprakash from Bihar has also been made spokesperson. Turncoats have also been rewarded, sending mixed signals down the line to the party faithful. As many as 5 of the 12 newly appointed BJP vice presidents are exports from other parties: A.P. Abdullakutty, who has travelled to the BJP via the CPM and the Congress; Mukul Roy, former Trinamool Congress leader; Annapurna Devi, former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA from Jharkhand; D.K. Aruna, former Congress minister from Telangana; and Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, former Biju Janata Dal leader.
A word about the role of the vice presidents. It’s a ceremonial office and real power vests with the general secretaries. But being ceremonial it is this lot that gets to share the dais whenever there is an important party function, and this includes events to which the PM is also invited. Even if they are not seated on the dais throughout the function, they are invited aboard during the lamp lighting or whatever ceremony that kicks off the events. Hence the five newly-minted party VPs will be flaunted before the party workers who have spent a much longer stint in the party.
Another key question that emerges is the role of the RSS in the party set up. Two general secretaries, Ram Madhav and P. Murlidhar Rao who were dropped, are closely linked to the RSS. This has sparked off speculation that they could either be included in the parliamentary board or the Union Cabinet. The parliamentary board is yet to be reconstituted specially after the demise of Ananth Kumar, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. A fourth vacancy was created when M. Venkaiah Naidu was made Vice President. The PM is also expected to reshuffle his Cabinet though some say that this will happen only after the Bihar polls. It would be interesting to see whether PM Modi and Shah accommodate Ram Madhav and Murlidhar Rao in the Cabinet, as is the speculation. BJP watchers are also waiting to see Devendra Fadnavis’ fate. The former Maharashtra CM does not enjoy a good equation with Amit Shah; it remains to be seen whether he will get his coveted seat in the parliamentary board or not. He has been given charge of the Bihar polls. Two of his bete noirs from the state — Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde — find a place in the party headquarter as secretaries. The Fadnavis camp draws some solace from the fact that this is not a very senior position.
Tejasvi Surya replaces Poonam Mahajan as the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha chief. His induction seems more in lines of an Anurag Thakur (on steroids) model than a continuation of Poonam’s style. And the BJP finally has a full-time treasurer in the 77-yearold Rajesh Aggarwal who replaces Piyush Goyal. A former finance minister (2017-2019) in the Yogi government, Aggarwal was axed by the UP CM but seems to have made a strong comeback.
Both Sonia (read Rahul Gandhi) and Nadda have reshuffled their team in the last month. In both cases it is difficult to find that one dominant message that comes through, but then not everything is done keeping headlines in mind.