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The BJP is learnt to be close to finalising an organisational reshuffle as it prepares to unveil its next president.
On Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met at party president and Union Health Minister J P Nadda’s home for over three hours. While some in the party said this was a routine meeting, sources said the leaders discussed impending changes in the party.
On Wednesday, Shah, Singh, and BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh first met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to finalise the organisational changes, sources said. Later in the day, Shah met Nadda, whose term as the BJP president is over.
While the BJP has finalised state presidents for 15 states, six or seven more are expected to be announced by April 19. Among the states where the party is expected to announce new presidents by the end of the week are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. BJP sources said the nomination process for the new president was likely to begin after April 20.
Sources in the party spoke of a sense of unease in the top BJP leadership following the Supreme Court judgment on the dispute between Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi and the DMK government over the clearing of Bills.
In its April 8 judgment, the Bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan ruled that Ravi’s November 2023 move to reserve 10 Bills for consideration of the President after the Tamil Nadu Assembly had already reconsidered them “illegal and erroneous”
The court said the President “ought to” seek the court’s opinion where a Governor has reserved a Bill for his or her consideration on the ground of “perceived unconstitutionality”. The court also, in setting timelines for Governors to act on Bills presented to them by state legislatures, prescribed that the President should take a decision on the Bills reserved for consideration by the Governor within three months of the date on which such reference is received.
Although there is a feeling in the government that this is a case of judicial overreach, there are some in the BJP who also question Ravi’s moves that precipitated the face-off with the judiciary.
This comes against the backdrop of the renewed debate over the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) following the fire at High Court judge Yashwant Varma’s home in Delhi — he has since been transferred back to his parent court in Allahabad — and the top court pulling up state governments recently over “bulldozer justice”.
Meanwhile, PM Modi called on President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday to discuss their recent international visits. The PM travelled to Mauritius in March and Thailand and Sri Lanka earlier this month, while the President recently returned from visits to Portugal and Slovakia.
