MAKING OF A NEW LOOK BJP

THE PARTY TRIES TO SHED ITS ‘BRAHMIN-BANIA’ IMAGE WITH A YOUNGER LEADERSHIP TIER WHERE WOMEN AND BACKWARD CLASSES CAN BE PIVOTS OF FUTURE GROWTH

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

A NEW PLAN

PM Modi with Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda at a BJP parliamentary party meeting

On July 30, the Union cabinet cleared the decks to give 27 per cent reservation to candidates from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the all-India quotas for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/ dental courses. The decision appears to be politically timed, as just months from now, five states go to the polls.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is obviously calculating its electoral dividends from this. Taking a piecemeal view, this could be thought of as a one-off effort to score brownie points before the elections, but party sources say it’s just another piece in the BJP and Sangh Parivar's larger plan to change the party’s image. The BJP top tier, consisting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party chief J.P. Nadda, are rebuilding the party with a focus on a convergence of castes— largely from the OBCs and Dalits—as a winning formula while simultaneously building a new leadership category of women and younger party leaders.