bjp-doesn-t-pick-chief-ministers-but-future-leaders

The Bharatiya Janata Party has redefined Indian politics in multiple ways. From emphasis on nationalism to building a new leadership and spreading the party roots in unexplored territories, the BJP has been experimenting with everything in unorthodox ways. By and large, party’s experiments are turning out to be successful. This is apart from the election management, where the party takes care of the minutest of details, and it rivals cannot even imagine about.

 

Appointment of Rekha Gupta as Delhi Chief Minister may have come as a surprise for many, but for the BJP it is something of a routine. Gupta is a first time MLA. However, she has been into electoral politics for a long time. She had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections from Rajouri Garden in 2015 and 2020 as well. Prior to that, she had served as a councillor and mayor of South Delhi.

 

The BJP has been experimenting with relatively young leaders making surprise appointments while “resting” the senior leaders or accommodating them somewhere else. Most of its chief ministers are in their fifties, or early sixties. At 50, Gupta is the BJP’s youngest chief minister right now. Only Bhupendra Patel of Gujarat and Mohan Yadav of Madhya Pradesh have crossed 60. While Patel is 62, Yadav is 60 years of age.

 

Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh, serving the second term, is 52; Nayab Saini in Haryana is 55; Devinder Fadnavis, Maharashtra, is 54; Pramod Sawant, Goa, is 52; Bhajan Lal Sharma, Rajasthan, is 58; Hemanta Sarma Biswa, Assam, is 56 - to quote a few examples. The party appointed these “younger” chief ministers while benching the veterans in the states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and earlier Uttar Pradesh. The experiment seems to be working well for the party as most of these chief ministers have proven to be successful.

 

Except for UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is believed to be asserting his “functional autonomy”, most other chief ministers are “led and guided” by the “central leadership”, something similar to “party high command” in the Congress. However, there is a lot of difference between the Congress “high command” and the BJP’s “central leadership”.

 

While, like the Congress, the central leadership does assert its authority in the BJP also, but unlike the Congress, there are a lot of checks and balances. In the Congress, the “high command” means the “Gandhi family” only, irrespective of the position it holds. Even when it is Mallikarjun Kharge who is the Congress president and supposed to be in command and control, the actual strings are pulled by the three-member “central politburo” of the Gandhi family, which exercises absolute authority.

 

In the BJP, like in the Congress, there are the “state in-charges” nominated by the central leadership. In addition, there are “organising secretaries” in every state, who are directly deputed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS). The organising secretaries hold a lot of influence and power and act as a bridge between the BJP and the RSS. They also help in maintaining the right equilibrium. Unlike the Congress, in the BJP, no leader can survive merely with the “blessings” of “someone” in the high command/ central leadership. This also helps in preventing the “absolute power” getting concentrated within a single person.

 

Also read: Cong should take cue from Tharoor instead of snubbing him
 

Despite the level of proximity former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar enjoyed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once the party felt that he (Khattar) was facing anti-incumbency that would threaten the BJP’s chances in the state, the process of replacing him started immediately. There was no lobbying with the Prime Minister or anywhere to save Khattar’s chief ministerial position, as would have happened in the Congress. Once Khattar was replaced, he accepted the decision gracefully. Can anyone expect such “peaceful transition” in the Congress?

 

It is obvious and understandable that none of the BJP’s chief ministers enjoys complete autonomy. Nor do those from the Congress. The central leadership/ high command does exert control to a large extent. However, there is again a difference between the Congress and the BJP. Unlike the Congress, there is a system of “checks and balances” which prevents arbitrary decisions.

 

Rekha Gupta might have sounded to be an unfamiliar name, but only to the general masses. In the organisation she is well recognised and acknowledged. She has strong and deep roots in the RSS and has cut her political teeth in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad, student wing of the RSS. She has risen from the ranks and has been an aggressive campaigner, to the extent that sometimes even having made some statements, which many people, particularly her political rivals, interpret as controversial. But that is the way politics is practiced in India.

 

Gupta has joined the galaxy of the BJP’s chief ministers who promise to make it big in the party. After the Prime Minister, chief minister is the second most important political position anyone can hold in India. By expanding the opportunities and extending these to those - who like Gupta and Bhajan Lal Sharma in Rajasthan, expect these the least - the BJP obviously has been inspiring its young and upcoming leadership and grooming it for long-term political battles.

 

Just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, none of the BJP chief ministers across the country has inherited politics from their parents. They are all first-generation politicians/ leaders. Modi, for that matter, is also a first-generation politician, who directly became the chief minister even before becoming an MLA, to become the Prime Minister. He is already the longest continuously serving Prime Minister of the country after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and may be on the way to even surpass him.

 

The BJP, it looks, does not merely pick up chief ministers, it picks up future leaders for the party.

 

List of BJP chief ministers 60 years and below

 

Bhajan Lal Sharma, Rajasthan, first time MLA 58 years

Rekha Gupta, Delhi, first time MLA 50 years

Mohan Yadav, Madhya Pradesh, 60 years

Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh, 52 years (Second Term)

Nayab Singh Saini, Haryana 55 years (Re-elected)

Vishno Deo Sai, Chhattisgarh 61 years

Mohan Charan Majhi, Odhisha 53 years

Hemanta Sarma Biswa, Assam, 56 years

Devinder Fadnavis, Maharashtra, 54 years (Second term)

Pramod Sawant, Goa, 52

(Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat 62 years).