2018 poor results on mind, BJP gambles with party shake-up in coming polls

The BJP had later come to power in Madhya Pradesh after defections from the Congress, while it is an ally of the MNF in Mizoram.

In the lists released so far, the party has fielded several heavyweights from the centre, and sources said it is an experimental step to encourage a new leadership in the states. At the same time, in a common theme across states, the BJP is seeking votes in the name of the party, refraining from propping up its entrenched leaders there.

A senior party leader emphasised the importance of the polls for the BJP in terms of organisation, while asserting that these not be seen as a “semi-final” or “a testimony to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity”. BJP leaders point to 2019 when, a year after the losses in these states, the party had swept the Lok Sabha elections.

But, a crucial difference now is the coming together of Opposition parties against the BJP, which means a Congress win in elections in the three heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh could have an impact several times over. If these states will decide the course of the BJP vs INDIA narrative, Telangana will decide the progress of the BJP’s South ambitions, particularly after the Karnataka loss.

In Mizoram, the stakes are lesser for the BJP, but the polls will be a good barometer of the impact of the Manipur violence on the larger Northeast, another region crucial for the party. The Mizos are ethnically aligned with the Kuki-Zomis, who have been in conflict with the dominant Meiteis in Manipur for the past five months.

A party leader involved with the electioneering process said: “The BJP is fielding a good mix of experienced leaders and fresh faces, which is meant to help the party make a serious push for power while taking steps to build a strong state leadership.”

According to BJP leaders, in internal meetings with MPs and states in-charge, Modi has been emphasising the need to build strong state leaderships. In the recent elections in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, the party had not declared a CM candidate but fought on the plank of Modi’s popularity and schemes. The BJP lost both.

“The PM keeps asking us how long the BJP can rely on him to win elections, and emphasises the need to boost leadership in states,” a state in-charge said.

In his recent rallies, incidentally, Modi has been careful to project the party rather than himself while seeking votes.

However, another section in the party says that more than any organisational shake-up, the BJP nomination list is proof of how the party fights every election with “full might”, marshalling all its resources. “It’s purely a poll strategy, to enlarge the space for the party,” a leader said, adding that whether it would pave the way for a new leadership is to be seen in the future.

Under the Modi-Amit Shah leadership, the BJP has earlier too taken unconventional measures to shake up state organisations, including promoting non-dominant caste leaders in states like Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Haryana as chief minister.

Of the five states headed to polls next year, the BJP nominations have been the most striking in Madhya Pradesh, where the party has been in power since 2003 except for the brief period after its narrow 2018 loss. It has fielded veterans and multiple-term MPs, hence projecting a collective leadership, overshadowing Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The BJP’s first list for Rajasthan, released Monday, has seven MPs, including a former Union minister, Rajyavardhan Rathore. The party has resisted pressure from a section of the leaders to give a prominent role to former CM Vasundhara Raje, and rather fielded another royal and MP, Diya Kumari, who belongs to the Jaipur royal family. It is an attempt to build her as a counter to Raje, party sources said.

Another veteran in the Rajasthan polls is Subhash Maharia, who was a member of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

In Chhattisgarh, MP Arun Sao, the state chief of the BJP, is in the race, apart from former CM Raman Singh.