By J.P. Yadav
Home minister Amit Shah held a series of meetings on Wednesday to finalise the name of the BJP working president following a prod from the RSS, insiders said.
The BJP is scheduled to hold an organisational meeting over the weekend where formal approval on a working president could be secured, sources said. Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J.P. Nadda, the meeting will be attended by the party’s state presidents, in-charges and national office-bearers.
The rush to appoint a working president is believed to be the result of a push by the RSS, which has adopted a more interventional role after the BJP’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Nadda’s extended tenure had expired in June but Modi and Shah were keen on letting him continue till a new president got elected after the organisational elections in January.
The RSS leadership, however, was against this arrangement and wanted a working president to be put in charge ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.
“Naddaji has now taken charge as the health minister and doesn’t have time to devote to organisational affairs,” an RSS leader said.
Many in the BJP, however, believe that the reason behind the RSS nudge could be linked to an interview of Nadda during the Lok Sabha polls where he said the BJP had turned “saksham” (capable) and was no more dependent on the RSS cadres.
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here.
