BJP is likely to announce the name of Amit Shah as new party president on Wednesday. The BJP Parliam-entary Board, the highest-decision making body of the party, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to approve Shah’s name as the new party chief, according to sources.
The incumbent party president, Rajnath Singh, will hold a press conference at 11, Ashoka Road, at 12.30pm. Shah is a general secretary of the party and is known for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rajnath will relinquish the BJP chief post, conforming to the party’s “one-man, one-post” formula. Shah, a former Minister of State for Home under Modi in Gujarat, came into prominence as in-charge of Uttar Pradesh in the lok Sabha poll as BJP won a record 71 of 80 seats on its own and 73 seats together with its ally Apana Dal.
In 2009 lok Sabha elections, the party could win only 10 lok Sabha seats. The earlier best performance of the BJP in UP was in 1998, when it collected 58 seats. The BJP is set for major organisational changes following its victory in the 2014 lok Sabha polls as many of its senior leaders have joined Council of Ministers in the Modi Government.
The party’s reorganisation will come ahead of Assembly elections in States like Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand later this year and early next year.The RSS which had fine-tuned BJP’s poll planning in 2014 lok Sabha poll has already deputed two of its key leaders --- Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash --- to work for the BJP. Madhav may be assigned the post of General Secretary in the organisation, sources said.
With Shah heading the party organisaion, the Prime Minister and the party chief would hail from the same State, Gujarat, which earlier seen to be at odd with the concept of maintaining an apparent “regional balance” in the organisation.