Why Nadda Was Elevated: The BJP Game Plan

Team selectors PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have given the BJP a new captain — JP Nadda. He was handpicked. Still his uncontested stride to the BJP’s top will serve a signal to grassroots workers that the party president’s job can be part of their aspiration.

- Rahul Shrivastava

The BJP had been preparing for the transition — from working under the Modi-Shah duo to the Modi-Shah-Nadda trio — since June 2019.

The BJP follows its one-man-one post norm. Shah kept the president’s charge despite taking over as the Union Home Minister in June last year as the party wanted him to be around for crucial elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

WHY JP NADDA

Nadda became the BJP's first working president and familiarised himself with the job over the last six months.

BJP insiders say that Nadda's elevation is need-based. They say with the 2019 Lok Sabha win, Modi and Shah have switched lanes. Modi, the BJP's face, the vote-getter, now is in an unchallenged pantheon — the driver. Then there is the engine — Shah, the poll and political strategist endearing the RSS by legislating pet Sangh agendas like rendering Article 370 toothless and enacting the new citizenship law.

Modi-Shah needed someone who they could trust, a clean image with RSS backing. They needed a leader low on ambition and high on potential to deliver on key tasks, and skills to run the organization. Nadda got green ticks on all counts.

The top two over the last six years have ensured the end of all power centres in the BJP. Old-timers like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar are out of the power structure.

Post losses in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Chouhan and Raman Singh have lost their regional straplike standing in the BJP. There are no factions and fractures are discouraged. By pushing Nadda as the BJP president, Modi and Shah have signaled that he would not become a third challenging power centre.