BJP president Amit Shah who took the party’s reins after its stupendous success in the lok Sabha polls last year, was on Sunday elected unopposed for a fresh three-year term with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading party seniors in his endorsement.
Besides Modi, a number of his Cabinet colleagues, including Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, and BJP Chief Ministers proposed Shah’s name during the nomination process.
leaders of ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, a party forum for 75-plus veterans, including lK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, did not arrive at the BJP headquarters to felicitate Shah. Advani, Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar had expressed their unhappiness over the handling of the party’s affairs and its “emasculation” soon after the BJP’s poll debacle in Bihar elections in November, last year.
However, Shah will be meeting Advani and Joshi to seek the “blessings” of the veterans. Shah will be meeting ailing former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee on Tuesday, party sources said.
His meeting with Joshi is scheduled for Tuesday after his return from West Bengal where he will be on a day-long trip on Monday.
The election of Shah, 51, after the party received a drubbing in the Delhi and Bihar polls surprised no one, given his proximity to the Prime Minister. According to sources, Shah may include new faces and expand his team, adopting “an inclusive approach” in consultations with the RSS.
Modi, who was not present during the exercise due to official engagements, will attend the Parliamentary Board meeting, likely on January 28, to welcome Shah in his new innings.
The Prime Minister congratulated Shah on his re-election and voiced confidence that the party will scale newer heights under his leadership. “Congratulations to Shri @AmitShah on being elected BJP president. I am confident the party will scale newer heights under his leadership,” Modi tweeted.
“Amit Bhai combines grassroot-level work & rich organisational experience which will benefit the party immensely,” Modi said in another post.
Modi had described Shah as ‘man of the match’ after party’s sterling performance in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 polls where it won 71 lok Sabha seats - the highest in its political history. Incidentally, Shah faces a challenging task of taking his party to victory in UP Assembly poll, scheduled next year. The Assembly polls in Assam, Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, this year, would also test party president’s leadership.
Altogether, 17 nominations were filed proposing the Shah’s name during the three-hour nomination exercise, party vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna, who was the chief electoral officer, said as he announced his unopposed election.
All BJP Chief Ministers, barring the one from Haryana, who was busy in an official engagement, and its State party presidents were present, reflecting the virtually total support Shah commanded.
This will be the first full three-year term for the Gujarat leader who was earlier completing the remaining part of the tenure of his predecessor Rajnath who had quit his post to be the Home Minister, last year.
Shah is credited with winning party Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra as also pushing BJP’s primary membership to beyond 11 crore from the earlier less than three crore.
He also led the party to victory in Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir but soon received shock defeats in Delhi and Bihar Assembly elections, raising some questioning on his invincibility.
But Shah has been of view that wins and losses were part of the political life. Asked after Bihar poll whether it would impact on his re-election, Shah said in an informal media chat “had these been a yardstick, the BJP would have been headless for years.” He was referring to party’s past struggle for poll victories for decades.