As part of its efforts to re-establish control over the BJP, the RSS is keen to change the party’s organisational structure from a ‘‘presidential’’ to an ‘‘elected’’ system, sources indicated.The RSS, which is unhappy with the ideological deviation of the BJP which came to the fore with L K Advani’s remarks during his Pakistan visit, wants the party to go back to its Jana Sangh days when not only the party president but all office-bearers were also elected and a Sangh nominee held the powerful post of general secretary.The change in organisational structure could be among the main items on the agenda of an RSS-BJP ‘‘chintan baithak’’ that sections of the BJP want to hold ahead of the party’s national executive in Chennai from September 16-18.However, a senior BJP leader said no ‘‘chintan baithak’’ was scheduled in the near future. The national executive was less than a month away and an RSS-BJP brainstorming session would be held—if at all—much after. But the RSS has already floated a trial balloon on the organisational question through some senior party leaders.The RSS, as well as anti-Advani sections in the BJP, feels that the party has become too ‘‘personality-centric’’ and this is partly rooted in its organisational structure. After the BJP came into being in 1980, it did away with the post of general secretary and the elected president nominated his team of office-bearers. The office-bearers, therefore, were more loyal to the party chief than to the RSS and its ideology.The alternative is the reinstatement of the all-powerful general secretary and office-bearers (vice presidents, general secretaries, and secretaries) who will be elected by the same electoral college that elects the president.
