New Delhi, July 05: The BJP has decided to sack some of the “worst performers” in different states where the party’s electoral defeat was particularly humiliating.
Presidents of BJP units in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttarakhand will be replaced in a couple of days following the party’s dismal performance in these states.
The Uttarakhand unit is headed by Bachi Singh Rawat. The BJP had lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state. In Delhi, O.P. Kohli presided over the party’s rout and in Rajasthan, former BJP general secretary Om Mathur has been in charge during the period in which the party first lost the Assembly elections and then performed miserably in the Lok Sabha. The Congress won 19 of the total 25 seats in the desert state.
In Haryana, the state unit president Atma Ram Manchanda supervised the Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress won nine of the total 10 seats. In Punjab, the BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari could deliver only one of the total three seats contested by the party.
Some of these leaders had already offered to resign following the BJP’s debacle in the areas managed by them. But no decision had so far been taken. The earlier thinking was that since the BJP anyway has to go through organisational elections that will put in place new leaders in each unit including the states, there was no logic in removing unit heads immediately.
BJP’s organisational drive will start on July 6 during which even senior leaders such as L.K. Advani will have to renew his party membership. This process – which continues till October – will form the electorate for polls to the lowest unit i.e. the district level. The districts will choose the next organisational unit that is the mandal and then the states will elect their presidents.
This process will continue till end of October by when the RSS will have to come to a decision about who will replace Rajnath Singh and become the next BJP president.
Though Rajnath enjoys the RSS’s trust, he still cannot continue as BJP president as it involves an amendment in the party constitution that does not allow him another term. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley are the two obvious choices for the post though Advani is believed to be keen on Ananth Kumar.
But even as this process continues, the RSS apparently has set new parameters by which accountability for “absolutely miserable” performances has to be fixed immediately. That is why new state presidents will be appointed in five of the “worst performing” states.
Almost simultaneously, the BJP will appoint new overseers for Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Jaitley was the BJP general secretary in charge of political affairs in Uttar Pradesh till the party appointed him as leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Having accepted a constitutional post, Jaitley has resigned from his party position and the BJP now has to look for another heavyweight to manage the politically- crucial Hindi heartland state.
In Karnataka, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha was looking after political affairs from the central party unit. But Sinha resigned from all party posts following the BJP’s defeat and his replacement in Karnataka is yet to be decided.
–Agencies