Amidst BJP overhaul, calls for better coordination with RSS

These “coordination” meetings were earlier held around once a month on issues “with a national focus”, sources said. But since 2019, these have “beome more and more rare”.

The focus on better coordination follows disquiet in the RSS over BJP chief J P Nadda’s statement to The Indian Express in an interview that the party no longer required hand-holding by the RSS. In the wake of the interview, the RSS had held back during the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with the fall in the BJP’s tally seen as partly a result of that.

Since then, the BJP has tried to make amends. In March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, becoming was the first sitting PM to do so.

BJP sources said the process of the election of the next BJP national president — which mandates that at least 18 of the party’s 36 units should have undergone organisational elections — is “running behind schedule” due to decisions related to the appointment of presidents in crucial states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. These are expected to be done soon. “Once the rejig of these state units is achieved, the process (of the appointment of the national BJP president) will pick up speed,” a source said.

According to the BJP’s constitution, members of the party’s national council and state councils together vote for the party’s national president. “A delay occurs only when there is a lack of consensus regarding a decision. The recent move in Tamil Nadu, where the state unit chief was replaced, took time and consideration,” a source said.

The tenure of J P Nadda, who became BJP national president in January 2020, was supposed to end in January 2023. It was extended due to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly elections that followed.

Nadda’s successor will hold the party’s reins during the Bihar Assembly elections later this year as well as through polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam next year.