BJP Looks to Refresh Narrative With Major Party Recast
The long-awaited changes in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organisation announced on Monday signal a thorough recast with all but two general secretaries – the key functional posts in the party set up – being retained in the new team.
The churn is also evidence that the BJP brass has taken note of gaps in communication in the light of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests that pointed to a mismatch between the party’s agenda and the young Gen Z voter.
Right Timing
The list of office bearers has been finalised almost seven months after the BJP presidentship passed from health minister J P Nadda to Bihar leader Nitin Nabin. Though it has taken time, the changes have happened at the right time when a recast of BJP outreach and narrative was seen to be the need of the hour.
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BJP has a new social media head in Chhattisgarh-based Deepak Mhaskey with Amit Malviya’s lengthy tenure as in-charge of the IT cell ending. The decision to move Malviya out of the social media cell had been in the works for some time. A sameness marked BJP’s social media engagements which resembled daily dog fights with baiters rather than an exposition of programmes and achievements.
In recent weeks the social media content relating to BJP and the Modi government had shifted tracks subtly with a greater focus on the acceleration of development and achievement of economic milestones since the Prime Minister assumed office. Less “provocative” that usual political clickbait, the posts are a more concerted effort to engage the public opinion despite predictable sparring.
The shuffle brings senior leaders Ram Madhav and Smriti Irani back in the thick of BJP organisational matters. Madhav was not in the list of BJP office bearers in 2020 when Nadda’s team was announced and returned to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). He was deeply involved in foreign policy advocacy and is a regular presence in the international think tank circle. Irani was not included in the Modi 3.0 ministry after she lost the Lok Sabha election from Amethi.
More Churn
The list of eight general secretaries makes interesting reading with only Vinod Tawde and Sunil Bansal retaining their spots, indicating the leaders continue to retain the BJP leadership’s confidence. Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb’s inclusion means he will have a role in organising BJP activities in the north-east. Satish Poonia, former Rajasthan deputy leader of Opposition and currently Rajya Sabha MP, Gajendra Patel, MP, from Madhya Pradesh, Harish Dwivedi, former MP Harish Dwivedi and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Bhatia are the others. In all 18 MPs are on the list of office bearers.
After a lull post the Lok Sabha poll, Irani re-engaged with active politics and was an in-demand campaigner in the recent election in West Bengal. She remains a very recognisable public figure and an articulate communicator on television as well as the public stage. Madhav too has earned a reputation as a columnist defending and expounding on the Modi government’s policy decisions.
The office bearers include 10 women, six of who are vice presidents who include former CMs Vasundhara Raje and Tirath Singh Rawat. Though the vice president post is less functional, the party can assign specific tasks such as superintendence of state polls. Madhav is in the list of vice presidents while Irani has been named general secretary.
Other women vice presidents include Bharti Pawar, a tribal leader and former minister in Modi 2.0, two-term MP Rekha Verma from Uttar Pradesh, two-term MLA Varshaben Doshi from Gujarat, Kolkata-based oncologist Dr Madhuchandra Kar and Rajamundhry MP and N T Ramarao’s daughter D Purandeswari.
The media outreach continues to be under the charge of Garhwal MP Anil Baluni though his team has changed with Usha Agarwa, Pradeep Bhandari and Siddharth Yadav working with him.
The changes in the social media team centre around Mhaskey, seen to have done well in coordinating BJP campaigns in Chhattisgarh, and more recently in West Bengal. Priti Gandhi from Maharashtra, Shivanand Dwivedi from Delhi, Alok Bhatt from Uttarakhand and Arun Yadav from Haryana will work with him.
A day after the office bearers list was announced, Nabin appointed leaders to oversee upcoming state polls. Punjab leader Tarun Chugh, was has been named at central office in-charge, was assigned Gujarat while Tawde and Poonia have been named for UP and Punjab.