Following the Karnataka defeat, senior BJP leaders including President J P Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and general secretary B L Santhosh, held key meetings on Tuesday, following a similar meeting on Monday night to discuss organisational changes, alliances as well as ways of highlighting key beneficiary schemes among voters.
“There is a need to have new faces keeping caste equations and interests of the party in mind,” an in-charge of a key organisational division told DH.
Among the key issues facing the party leadership ahead of an election year, are organisational changes in states like Karnataka where it is yet to name the leader of Opposition. There are indications that state president Nalin Kateel could make way for someone else.
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In addition to that, state units of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana could see some changes. State presidents and state in-charges could be changed, said sources. Apart from state units, office-bearers of the central command could also see a rejig.
The BJP is also keen on ironing out differences between the local leaderships of the state units in election-going states Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to avoid a repeat of its loss in Karnataka.
The two marathon meetings, which took place for two hours on Monday night and over five hours on Tuesday, also touched upon alliance issues of the party. The party has soured relationships with some of its oldest alliance partners, including the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, and Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, and all three have left the National Democratic Alliance. The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra blames the BJP for its split.
Apart from that, a stock-taking of the party’s outreach on nine years of the Modi government was done. The party is banking heavily on its beneficiaries model, which has helped it in Assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
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