Amit Shah set to become BJP chief again

The stage is now set for Amit Shah’s second term as BJP president next week, with a notification for holding presidential election expected to come out in a couple of days.

BJP national election officer Avinash Rai Khanna is in Delhi finalising voters list for holding the elections to the post of party chief. Party sources said in a day or two Khanna is likely to complete the process and put out a notification for holding the elections. The mandatory organisations elections for 50 per cent of state units (which works out to 19 of them) have been completed, with Basanta Panda being unanimously elected to head its Odisha unit on Thursday.

The party has elected office bearers for the 19 states and Union territories including Uttaranchal, Chattissgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh,  Haryana, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar, Chandigarh, Tripura and Meghalaya.  At least three more states, including UP is also ready to announce its state chief anytime now, said BJP leaders involved in the process.

 The organisational members from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala will not be able to participate in the presidential elections since their state heads were nominated by Shah. While internal poll process for Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi have not been completed and will take place after Shah’s coronation.

Party sources said in all likelyhood, Shah should get a full-fledged second term of three years early next week, sometime between January 18 to January 23. Shah took over as the BJP chief from Rajnath Singh after the later shifted to the Modi government to become Union home minister on May 2014.

Shah, who became BJP chief on a high after the party under him pulled off a good show in UP by notching 71 seats, has faced back-to-back humiliating polls defeats in Delhi and Bihar.