NEW DELHI, April 14: Kushabhau Thakre is the new BJP president. The 76-year-old RSS pracharak will take over the reins of the party from his predecessor Lal Krishna Advani at the two-day national council meeting that begins at Gandhinagar on May 3.Today being the last day for the filing of nomination papers for the post of the new BJP chief, Thakre's election was unanimous, in keeping with the party's convention since its inception in 1980.A close confidant of Advani, Thakre is likely to continue the policies and programmes enunciated by his predecessor. But party leaders admit that he is likely to have a tough time ahead as his innings as the BJP president will be compared with that of Advani.Thakre seemed to be aware of this when he remarked, after being formally declared elected by the party's central returning officer K Jana Krishnamurthi this afternoon: "I understand my limitations. But I am sure I'll be able to fulfill the responsibilities thrust upon me with the help of other leaders," hesaid, "After all, we have a system of collective leadership within our party."After Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Murli Manohar Joshi, he is the fourth BJP leader to have been selected for the party's top job. In accordance with the provisions of the party constitution, he will have a tenure of two years.A contemporary of Vajpayee and Advani and a founder-member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, BJP's previous incarnation, Thakre takes charge of the party at a time when it has gained power at the Centre with the help of its allies - a situation which all his predecessors did not confront."Despite these odds," Thakre said, "we hope to fulfill the expectations the people have from our government and our party," he said.
