As the Assembly and parliamentary polls draw near, political parties are in full gear to win the elections. In a bid to score a hat trick in Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continuously been engaged in strengthening its organisation in the state.
The party’s state president, Om Prakash Dhankhar who hails from the Jat community and completed his tenure on 19 July has left no stone unturned to boost the BJP’s standing during his tenure. With Dhankar completing his tenure of three years there is speculation about whether the BJP’s high command might extend his tenure or take a call to assign this responsibility to someone else. However, it is pertinent to note that OP Dhankhar’s tenure as state president has been satisfactory. Throughout his tenure, Dhankar organised continuous meetings with party workers, as well as the party stalwarts, with the aim to give the organisation an edge in the state of Haryana. On the other hand, the former party president has also said that he received the responsibility of party chief in a “very challenging” environment. However, those in top leadership, including Dr Sanjay Sharma who holds the portfolio of the state media in-charge and state social media in-charge have termed Dhankar’s tenure as more than satisfactory.
Further, according to Sharma keeping Dhankar’s performance as well as keeping in line with BJP national president JP Nadda, he is likely to retain the post of state president. In line with this, it is pertinent to note that caste equations are most likely to play pivotal roles in state politics as well as in the BJP organisation. The party high command had assigned Dhankar the portfolio of the state president in 2019 along these same lines. Notably, the Jat community constitutes the maximum vote share in the state and no party is in a position to ignore the community. This is why it is believed that the party might give Dhankar an extension. It has become clear from the political atmosphere of the last few days that the BJP will contest the coming assembly elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. In such a situation, it would be natural to discuss with the Chief Minister whether the BJP high command should give the responsibility to Dhankhar again or not give it to him or make someone else the president—Khattar’s opinion is likely to hold a lot of weight in the matter.
There have been rumblings in the past about differences between CM Khattar and Dhankar.
However, there has never been any open hostility between the two. Additionally, keeping in mind the Assembly and parliamentary that are looming large, the BJP high command is likely to refrain from making major changes to the party’s organisational set up.