J P NADDA: BJP PRESIDENT WITH NINE LIVES

The president of the world's largest political party continues in his post despite a long tenure and concurrent ministerial responsibilities. He's a survivor who has skirted controversies

- RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

As the world's largest political party contesting serial elections, notching more hits than misses and running governments at the Centre and 14 states, the BJP is known to be a stickler for organisational propriety and discipline. It's no mean achievement considering that the exercise of executive and legislative power alters the dynamics within a party for the worse.

In the long years when the BJP was in the opposition, it scrupulously adhered to its own Constitution—as distinct from the Indian Constitution—particularly when confronted with broglios involving the leadership. The veto power lay with the extended family's head, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, that had the last word and sometimes shot down the BJP's proposals and decisions to party leaders' disgruntlement. The RSS's assertions were manifest after the BJP was seated at the Centre and some states. Competing pulls and pressures became inevitable as the playing field grew larger and the stakes for BJP leaders bidding for absolute power became apparent.

In 1991, when L K Advani became the position leader in the Lok Sabha, without a fuss he relinquished the BJP presidency for Murli Manohar Joshi. The import of this act gets amplified when in 2005, he scripted encomiums for Muhammad Ali Jinnah during a visit to Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi.