BJP’s Collective Leadership Gambit: Ring out the old, ring in the new 

BJP’s foremost lesson from the Karnataka debacle was to eliminate the scope for any state leader to project himself or herself as a chief ministerial contender in the run-up to the five assembly elections. (Source: PTI/File)

The Bharatiya Janata Party is known for minute analysis of poll outcomes, irrespective of victory or loss. The defeat in Karnataka was a rude shock for the BJP. Not just the loss, the BJP leadership was jolted by the scale of the drubbing.

Away from the public glare, the BJP top brass examined the Karnataka loss deeply, and has come around to a view that the party could not address the leadership issue effectively.

The Karnataka Effect

The conclusion was that feuding state leaders had wiped out the objectives of the bold experiment of fielding a large number of candidates under 50 years of age. The BJP’s gambit to negate the anti-incumbency factor by dropping incumbent legislators and fielding ordinary workers to fuel their political aspirations had come unstuck. Even while Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the electioneering, and Union home minister Amit Shah held the ground in Karnataka, the BJP’s tally dipped sharply in the state assembly.

BJP’s foremost lesson from the Karnataka debacle was to eliminate the scope for any state leader to project himself or herself as a chief ministerial contender in the run-up to the five assembly elections. This is being tactfully unveiled in the poll-bound big states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana where the BJP is aiming for pole finish.

BJP’s poll mantra is clear: PM Modi is its sole mascot who has appeal across the country, and his leadership credentials can carry the burden of the electioneering. At the same time, the BJP is seeking a leadership transition in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh with an eye to prepare a battery of state leaders who can carry the weight of the saffron outfit for the next decade.

Thus, the BJP is in the process of drafting a number of Lok Sabha MPs, including Union ministers, into the election fray. With Modi leading from the front, BJP has dropped enough hints that it will adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach.

The idea is that the prominent faces in the states must prove their mettle in the assembly elections and help the BJP win the polls, while the top brass will weigh in on their skills at the time of picking chief ministers in the event of victories.

Madhya Pradesh

Incumbent chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is only 64 years of age, and he still has 11 years to hit the unofficial age ceiling of 75 years for electoral politics. He is also arguably the only state leader of the BJP who can pull crowds in any part of Madhya Pradesh.

But the BJP appears not too keen to project him as the CM face on the basis of ground feedback, collected for months, which apparently paint an adverse scenario over foregrounding him.

While Chouhan is seen to be a popular face, party workers have complained during the stock-taking exercise that there is fatigue with him. The BJP had lost the last assembly election under his leadership. It was only the post-poll turn of events surrounding Jyotiraditya Scindia’s defection that brought Chouhan and BJP back to power.

Now, the BJP is testing the collective leadership plank in MP by fielding Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Prahlad Singh Patel, and senior leader Kailash Vijayvargiya in the electoral fray.

Rajasthan

The two-term former CM Vasundhara Raje, 70, has held the BJP fort in Rajasthan for over two decades. The BJP top brass appears to be holding the view that if the state is allowed to be a fiefdom of one leader it would yield a leadership drought in future, and thus the time is ripe to test collective leadership.

The likes of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Rajyavardhan Rathore are known faces on the national stage, and a Madhya Pradesh-like experiment in Rajasthan is not ruled out as Raje hasn’t been given an election-related charge befitting her stature yet.

Further, the BJP assigned the task of leading the “faceless” parivartan yatras taken out in Rajasthan to district presidents to send out a clear message that the party will be giving a greater consideration to less-fancied leaders and ordinary workers at the time of ticket distribution, which would be an opportunity for to them to demonstrate their organisational and political skills.

Chhattisgarh

Raman Singh, who was CM for three consecutive terms, is now 70. He has maintained cordial relations with the top leadership of the party, which was evident when he was entrusted with the task to oversee the leadership change in Uttarakhand ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.

But age is not on his side, and BJP is struggling with an utter lack of state leaders who can connect with the people. The BJP leadership is peeved particularly that the state leaders in Chhattisgarh could not rise to the occasion and demonstrate their ability to effectively helm the party.

Meanwhile, incumbent CM Bhupesh Baghel is seen to have consolidated his influence in state politics. Now, the BJP is banking on the might of ordinary party workers to turn the tables on the Baghel-led Congress.

Telangana

The BJP had backed Bandi Sanjay Kumar to the hilt in building the party’s base in Telangana. But the central leadership grew wary of rampant factionalism as the imports from BRS and Congress were uncomfortable with Sanjay’s aggression, which warranted sending Union minister G Kishan Reddy to Hyderabad.

Now the BJP has split the state into six zones and the top brass of the party is learnt to be directly dealing with leaders at the zonal levels by sending out the message that under PM Modi’s leadership all state functionaries have to deliver their best, which in turn will benefit their aspirations to climb up the political ladder.

Betting On Ground Strength

Home minister Amit Shah has been holding closed door meetings with the party workers at the district level by sending out the message that the grassroots functionaries are the most valuable assets of the saffron outfit.

With Modi leading the show, the BJP is banking on soaring aspirations of such workers by sending out the message that under the umbrella of collective leadership the party will be building leaders for the next decade to see them through the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.

Manish Anand is a senior Delhi-based journalist. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.