The BJP national executive was all about sounding the poll bugle and re-electing Nadda as party chief

The main takeaway from the BJP’s two-day National Executive meeting in Delhi was the extension of the term of JP Nadda who would now be the party president till the next General elections to be held in 2024. The speech of Prime Minister Narendra  Modi and and other senior leaders reflected the seriousness with which the BJP is going to the next year’s general elections. In this context, the extension granted to Nadda is significant.  He is seen as a leader who is both acceptable to the Big Two in the BJP and also capable to delivering the expected result. Union Home Minister Amit Shah made the formal announcement to this effect asserted that the BJP was a political party of India that follows democratic

processes and values in its functioning the most. “Right from the days of Jan Singh’s establishment to date — the BJP has conducted elections from booth to the national president as mandated by our constitution,” he said. He conveniently forgot that for democratically electing a candidate you need at least two contestants, or else it is a nomination, not an election.

However, before he oversees General elections, he would have to take the litmus test of state

elections that are to take place this year. As many as nine states would be going to polls including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan where a tough fight is on the cards. These elections come on the heels of three elections where the party did not do as well as it would have liked to. It lost Himachal Pradesh, Nadda’s home state, and could not make a comeback in the Delhi Civic elections. With the party now poised to face the next General Elections with him at the helm it would be indeed a challenging task. Though the state elections are quite different in their approach and substance, they do have a bearing on the General elections if they are not very far in time from the General elections. These nine states send 116 MPs to Parliament and so would be crucial for any party that wants to do well in General elections.  The BJP leaders were all praise for JP Nadda for his organizational skills and credited him with the wins the party posted in his tenure. Amit Shah said that the BJP, under the

leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the organizational hand of  Nadda, was poised to win the 2024 General Elections with a bigger mandate than in 2019. He also praised Nadda for his ‘Sewa hi Sanghathan’ outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic and for directing party workers in providing help. How much JP Nadda lives up to these accolades only the election results would tell. The national executive had all the fanfare that has now become customary in all the BJP’s functions. The eye-catcher of course was the Prime Minister’s roadshow to the convention centre that qualified as a show of strength.