BJP gets new state chiefs, moves closer to elect national president

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday moved towards rolling out the exercise to have a new national president as the party elected chiefs in some states and is set to announce more on Tuesday that will put the requisite number of state heads at the helm for it to pick the replacement of J P Nadda.

The BJP's constitution requires the election of its presidents in at least 19 out of its 37 organisational states before the process to elect its national president begins, and the ruling party is set to cross the threshold on Tuesday.

V P Ramalingam and K Beichhua were elected BJP presidents of Puducherry and Mizoram respectively on Monday, while single nomination for the post was filed in states like Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, making their election a mere formality on Tuesday.

The BJP has now new state presidents, including some who were reelected, in 16 states, a figure that will rise on Tuesday. Some big states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh may also follow suit in the next few days.

The BJP has picked seasoned organisational men but with low public profile in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in Ramchander Rao and P V N Madhav respectively.

Maharashtra BJP working president and four-term MLA Ravindra Chavan is set to be elected president in place of Chandrashekhar Bawankule, a Cabinet minister in the BJP-led government in the state, while incumbent Uttarakhand president and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt is set to begin a new term.

The development has brightened the prospect for the BJP to elect its new national president to replace Nadda, a Cabinet minister in the Modi government, in July.

Rao's choice, however, triggered a furious reaction from fiery Hindutva leader and MLA T Raja Singh, who resigned from the BJP. The elevation of Rao, a relatively low profile in the Telangana organisation riven with factionalism, is being seen as a balancing act and also a reward to old organisation hands.

The BJP's decision to replace its Lok Sabha MP Daggubati Purandeswari as its Andhra president with a seasoned organisation man is driven by its leadership's wish to build the party in a state where it is an ally of the ruling TDP but remains a minor electoral player.

Purandeswari, the daughter of towering Andhra leader N T Rama Rao and sister-in-law of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, enjoys a certain stature due to her family background and long stint in politics during which she served as a Union minister in the UPA government when she was in the Congress.

However, BJP sources said a thorough organisation leader like Madhav can be more helpful in building the party in the state.

While Rao is a Brahmin, Madhav is from the Backward Classes, giving the party a toe hold in a community outside the ones that form the bulwark of all major political players in the state.

In Uttarakhand, the party, having made a Thakur leader in Pushkar Singh Dhami as the chief minister, has opted for a Brahmin face in Bhatt as its president. Chavan is a Maratha, a powerful community in Maharashtra.