Organisational elections within the BJP, a requirement for the process to elect a new party chief, appear to be picking up pace.
At least two BJP state units have made themselves eligible for intra-party polls by electing their respective presidents. Several more, including Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, are expected to follow suit soon. In Telangana, meanwhile, controversial MLA Raja Singh Monday resigned over the possible appointment of Ramchander Rao as Telangana BJP chief.
Party sources said that a total of around 24 state units are likely to announce their presidents this week, setting the stage for intra-party polls to choose a successor to party chief JP Nadda.
“Mizoram and Puducherry picked their respective state unit presidents on Monday; Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are in the process of doing so over two to three days. The party is likely to retain the incumbent state presidents in Maharashtra as well as Andhra Pradesh,” one source said.
“Around 24 to 25 BJP state units are likely to announce their new presidents by the end of the first week of July. The process will likely conclude by the end of the first week of July,” said another party source.
Nadda was appointed the BJP’s national president in January 2020 and his tenure was supposed to end in January 2023. But the party extended it twice, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir.
His successor will helm the party during the Bihar elections, scheduled for later this year, and Assembly polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam through 2026.
The party last week appointed senior leaders for the election of state unit presidents in Maharashtra (Union Minister Kiren Rijiju), Uttarakhand (Minister of State Harsh Malhotra) and West Bengal (Rajya Sabha MP Ravi Shankar Prasad).
The BJP’s constitution mandates the election of its national president only after organisational polls up to the level of state unit presidents have been completed. According to party insiders, the process of filing nomination papers — usually by one candidate — is considered the logical step before the election of that leader as the chief of that particular state unit.
The process entails internal elections for the booth presidents of at least half the number of booths under a state unit, then the election of Mandal chiefs, then zila or district presidents and then the president of the state unit.
So far, the party has announced new party chiefs in 16 of the total 37 state units across the country. This number needs to be at least 19 to begin the national president elections following the appointment of an observer.
