Amidst the suspense over the BJP’s fate in the Himachal elections results last December, another question was doing the rounds in the party circles; will the current party National President JP Nadda get another tenure? It only got deepened with the party’s defeat in Nadda’s home state.
We have found an answer now after the BJP National Executive Council Meeting that concluded in Delhi this week. Few analysts were expecting a change of guard in the party in the run-up year to the next General elections.
Nadda’s emotional message to party workers after getting an extension until June 2024 explains the party’s rationale behind reposing faith in him despite the Himachal debacle. He reminded his fellow partymen and women that only BJP could an “ordinary activist” like him a chance to lead the party at the national level. Accepting the responsibility with his characteristic humility, Nadda sought the party’s full commitment and blessings to fulfil Mission- 2024.
Nevertheless, humility is just among many virtues that Nadda holds. He enjoys as good relations with PM Narendra Modi as with the RSS, one of the primary reasons for this being a consistently sound performance in electoral battlegrounds over the years.
BJP has won 73 out of 120 State Assembly bypolls under his watch. It formed governments in Maharashtra and Haryana against many odds and put up a strong showing in Bihar. The saffron party under Nadda’s leadership also won Uttar Pradesh Assam, Manipur and Uttarakhand Assemblies, not to mention Goa where BJP formed government for the first time on its own.
JP Nadda’s leadership has immensely contributed to the BJP’s rise in the northeastern states. It is ruling Assam, Tripura and Manipur with a comfortable majority and is an important constituent of the ruling alliance in Meghalaya and Nagaland. The historic victory in Gujarat elections last year with 156 Assembly seats was another feather in Nadda’s crown. While announcing another term for Nadda, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah credited Nadda with transforming PM Modi’s charisma into a resounding mandate in Gujarat and expressed confidence that the party will return to power at the centre with an even bigger margin in 2024 under Nadda’s guidance.
It is noteworthy that BJP secured the 2019 national mandate with the biggest-ever victory in its Parliamentary history and it happened under Shah’s party leadership. JP Nadda is considered among those few top leaders in the party circles who possess similar organisational skills as that of Shah’s. The party’s think tank believes this prowess will also help the party’s fortunes in nine Assembly elections due this year.
JP Nadda’s humble beginnings coupled with an amiable nature are seen as a big asset in coordinating the organisational work. The current year is going to be a big test of all his strengths with different challenges awaiting the party in Karnataka, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. Starting his renewed stint, he has acknowledged these challenges are not going to be easy.
BJP under his guidance will also need to formulate a strategy for 160- odd Lok Sabha seats where the party feels it could do better. Not many parties in the current Indian political landscape go this far in chasing electoral victories as the BJP has done under Nadda’s watch. However, its performance has not been as emphatic in states as in General Elections where no party can currently match PM Modi’s charisma, the party’s huge resources and its social engineering formula.
Keeping factionalism under check in the poll-bound states will be a stiff task for Nadda as the Party President. Almost all of the party’s state units, barring maybe UP and Gujarat are afflicted by some sort of competing interests within the party. The intra-party rivalries are no secret in MP and Rajasthan. In Karnataka, they have only worsened after Yediurappa was replaced by Bommai.
However, Nadda has shown the capability to take tough decisions without evoking much dissension. Not only did he manage to persuade Devendra Fadanvis to be Eknath Shinde’s deputy in Maharashtra, but Nadda was also instrumental in a smooth change of guard in Uttarakhand, Assam, Gujarat, Tripura and Karnataka. BJP will be expecting the same steadfast approach from him during the current tenure.
Another aspect of Nadda’s leadership has so far gone under the radar. It is his emphasis on the mission of service as part of political dynamism. His ‘Seva hi Sangathan (Organisation for service)’ initiative during the pandemic helped the party reach out to billions of people in distress. This has helped the BJP strengthen its position as the world’s largest political party.
Meanwhile, Nadda has sounded the bugle for 2024 polls from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur. It is one among the 14 Lok Sabha seats where the party faced defeat in 2019. It had also lost all seven Assembly seats in the region last year. It sends a strong signal to the opposition as well to the party cadre that the party under Nadda means business and JP Nadda would do all he can to make his tenure BJP’s ‘Amritkaal.’
