Anil Anand
Amit Shah gets his second full term as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party. There was never a doubt that the party in its present form and shape would ever overlook him for the top job after he completed the truncated term of his predecessor Mr Rajnath Singh who won Lok Sabha elections to become Home Minister of India.
The epithets were already being written indicating end of his political career in the hurly burly of Delhi politics following BJP’s debacle in Bihar Assembly elections. The rebellious brigade of the party including mostly old warhorses such as L K Advani, M M Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Mr Yashwant Sinha who had momentarily discovered their voice had lent some credence to reports about Mr Shah’s days to be numbered at the top before fizzling out faster than expected.
In fact the one factor that lorded over everything else including the rebellion failing to take-off had also been the Unique Selling Point (USP) of Mr Shah despite various descriptions of his still undiscovered persona. No guesses needed to discover this USP. Since Mr Shah drew his power from Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and that he remained to be his favourite to head the party had left no doubt that the former was in for a long haul to lead the party.
Some call him a great organiser while others view him as a no-nonsense kind of a person that heavily borders arrogance. But what mattered the most was how Mr Modi thought that he is a hardworking person close confidant. Perhaps the only person who could extract a word of praise out of Mr Modi after the impressive Lok Sabha election victory was none other than Mr Shah who was described by the former as the ‘man of the match’. That in itself makes the picture clear.
Mr Shah’s successes and failures during his limited first tenure as president were in equal measures. There is no doubt that Lok Sabha victory was a solo effort of Mr Modi to which his close confidant provided some organisational back up. Otherwise, Mr Shah’s successes and failures have come in equal terms after that. Had it anyone else the Bihar loss would have taken his or her toll but not Mr Shah.
The explanation is obvious. Mr Modi has very few in the BJP whom he would either know so closely or more importantly trust as Mr Shah. The trust factor apart, which has played an important factor for Mr Shah getting a full three-year term as president, and the fact that the two have a similar style of functioning and can be ruthless in their approach made it all the more compulsive for Mr Modi to carry out with this combination to ensure his hold on the party.
So far so good! Mr Modi has ensured that he remains the master of both his government and the party with a natural corollary that no space for dissent is either left or be tolerated. So the buzz of an impending reshuffle in the Cabinet and reshaping of the team Amit Shah has come in timely which will keep everyone, barring few rebels, on tenterhooks so as not to antagonise any of them.
The fact that Mr Shah and his supporters have directly related his efficiency to electoral victories by making the contests high profile and high octane also has many pitfalls embedded into it. He will be only two months into his fresh innings as president when Mr Shah would be in thick of action leading the party in next round of Assembly elections mostly in southern and eastern parts of the country where BJP is still trying to find feet.
There are no signs as yet, though it is too early, to suggest any change in Modi-Shah combination’s strategy towards elections. Within hours after assuming charge as president, Mr Shah was in poll bound West Bengal leading the charge where he oversaw a close relative of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose joining the party after a high-profile event of declassification of certain files pertaining to the Netaji’s disappearance/death controversy.
Barring Assam the BJP, as of today does not stand any chance of its own in other states going to polls that include West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. How far Mr Shah would succeed in changing the fortunes of his party in this round of elections will be significant to watch. A total washout would certainly bring pressure on him while a partial victory or finding new ground in these states will strengthen his counter-offensive and silence critics.
During his first stint as BJP president, Mr Shah has shown scant respect to dissent no matter whosoever and how so high the dissenter was. He would be closely observed by all including his own partymen on whether he shows any inclination to encourage inner party democracy and to carry everyone along.
All eyes are on Mr Shah who would be closely watched by his boss and mentor too.
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