(M.K.Venu is Executive Editor of Amar Ujala publications group)Amit Shah's elevation as the BJP's national President comes after elaborate manoeuvring within the party by Narendra Modi's loyalists who have worked hard over the past few weeks to create an elaborate charade that a few other candidates proposed by the party old guard were given due consideration only to be politely rejected later.
About a month ago, after Rajnath Singh had taken charge as Home Minister, it had become clear that the BJP would need a new party president. A sense of urgency was shown in choosing a replacement. News reports leaking from the BJP office first threw up the name of Jagat Prakash Nadda, General Secretary of BJP looking after Chhattisgarh. Nadda's name got bandied about for a week. News channels almost anointed him the next BJP President. It turned out later that Nadda was only a red herring aimed at securing Amit Shah's rise to the post.
Amit Shah's name was not proposed immediately after it became clear that Nadda did not have all the required attributes to be party President. Perhaps to project an even wider consultation process, another General Secretary's name was duly discussed for the top job. This time it was that of the General Secreatry in charge of Gujarat, Om Mathur. Being in charge of Gujarat, Om Mathur does have a good equation with Modi. But a good equation was not good enough. For Modi had probably already made up his mind from the very beginning to have Amit Shah installed as BJP President.
The reasons are not far to seek. Modi has established full control of both the government and his party by having Amit Shah appointed as BJP President. Amit Shah is there because he understands Modi like no one else does. Such is the nature of their relationship that Shah possibly sees himself as Modi's alter ego in many respects. Modi has stood by Amit Shah through his worst travails in Gujarat when the latter was arrested and put in jail in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing case. Modi rehabilitated Shah after his release from prison on bail and later gave him the responsibility of managing UP in the general elections. Shah had proved his skills in Gujarat at managing assembly victories with small percentage vote shifts. The UP election outcome pitchforked Amit Shah to another league altogether as an organisation man.
So Modi probably had Amit Shah in mind for the BJP top job from day one even though he allowed the party elders to go through the motion of looking at other names. Modi is trying his best not to appear unilateral when it comes to taking big decisions in the party or government. So he has begun to make token gestures at building "consensus" through discussion and consultation. The BJP elders do feel uneasy about Modi's veiled unilateralism but they keep mum because they know the cadres of both the BJP and RSS are still very enamoured of Modi.
Some party elders might privately express the view that Shah must not become President until he is cleared of the criminal cases for which he is undergoing trial. This might have been the done thing as per the past standards adopted by the BJP. But the stunning victory won by the BJP under Modi has shifted some of these moral goal posts which party elders may have strictly followed in the past. Political morality too appears, at times, like shifting sand dunes. The old guard, both in the BJP and RSS, has realized it is time not to resist change but to simply cope with it.
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