Too big to be cozy: the BJP’s expansion plans have problems and they are showing
In a marathon four-hour meeting at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence a few weeks ago, in the presence of senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata
In a marathon four-hour meeting at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence a few weeks ago, in the presence of senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Nabin, RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar among others, the Sangh Parivar mulled over its HR (human resources) issues. The BJP, which has seen an unprecedented growth not just electorally but also organisationally, with recruits from other parties and its own growth, faced the fact that its organisational structure needed expanding to accommodate old-timers and new entrants. The meeting drew up a blueprint to increase the number of organisational posts to satisfy all. The result of the Bankipur bypoll in Bihar, where the BJP lost its fort in the heart of Patna, has also signalled the discontent of that expansion, this time in its support base.
The past 12 years have seen an unprecedented rise of the BJP, a matter of satisfaction for any political party. It has also seen the party grow far beyond what used to be its ideological and organisational comfort zones. The Bankipur poll loss of the BJP is being seen as a rearguard action by the party’s core upper caste support base upset over its interests being neglected in favour of consolidating the BJP’s now-formidable OBC vote bank. The UGC social equity regulations, the killing of social activist Bharat Tiwari allegedly by Bihar Police, and the very appointment of Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary – who, despite having migrated to the BJP via the RJD and the JD(U), landed the top job for which thousands of BJP workers had slogged – led to the cocktail of reasons for the BJP’s loss. Bihar is not the only geography where the newbies versus old-timers issue has played.
In Maharashtra, during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP workers and RSS members refused to campaign for the NCP (Ajit) candidates citing years of political rivalry on the ground and bitter feelings. Months later, during the Assembly polls, the BJP, NCP (Ajit) and the RSS gelled together as the implications of the 2024 Lok Sabha tally of 240 seats were brought home. In West Bengal, the accommodation of Trinamool MPs and workers in the BJP after decades of violent face-offs on the ground has led to even senior leaders like Dilip Ghosh express apprehensions over the dilution of both cadre zeal and ideology in the newly won State. As with everything, for the BJP, this expansion of its ideological footprint has not been without its costs – upsetting old-timers, diluting some ideological principles (as in the case of turning a blind eye to beef consumption in Kerala and the Northeastern States) and now, an upper caste disenchantment that has the capacity to hit at the core of its support base.
The BriefWire