WHAT'S AT STAKE IN INDIA'S VICE-PRESIDENTIAL RACE?

The contest is less about personalities and more about power equations within and beyond the country's ruling party

- BY SWATI CHATURVEDI | Special to Gulf News

Jagdeep Dhankhar, India's vice-president and number two on the warrant of official precedence, suddenly resigned midway through his term. His mystery exit necessitated an election that neither the Modi government nor the opposition wanted.

The Modi government's pick — the current Maharashtra governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP veteran — is perhaps a belated realisation of two things. First, it needs one of its own to manage the Rajya Sabha without an absolute BJP majority. Dhankhar, a turncoat from two parties and another ideology, may not have been an ideal choice, though when he was picked — after giving Mamata Banerjee a hard time as governor of West Bengal — it was obediently hailed as a “master stroke” by the tame media.

Second, the RSS, which is sensing weakness at the heart of the Narendra Modi-led BJP, has to be kept in good humour. Modi's description of the RSS as the “world’s largest NGO” from the Red Fort on Independence Day should be seen in this light.

BJP's top leaders are now making assiduous attempts to keep the RSS happy as the organisation, which turns 100, asserts itself. The RSS has benefited immensely in profile, clout, and prosperity since 2014, but was largely kept out of political decision-making by the Modi-Amit Shah duo. Recall BJP president J.P. Nadda declaring that the BJP didn't need the RSS anymore. Now, the tables have turned - the BJP needs it, and the RSS is playing tough.

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