BJP president Amit Shah is all set to get a second term as his current tenure ends in December, with the RSS leadership deciding against replacing someone whom it considers to be “extremely hardworking.”
Expectations of party dissidents that disgruntlement over the Bihar results, the second successive failure after the Delhi election, would find purchase with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has not materialised with the Sangh, according to sources, reading the setback as a result of the rival grand alliance's stronger social coalition.
The Bihar debacle sparked rumblings of discontent against Shah, with senior members L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar holding the party chief responsible for the embarrassment and accusing him of “emasculating” the organisation. However, the shortlived revolt by the veterans, sidelined in the Modi dispensation, failed to stir up any serious dissent against the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and Shah.
While RSS can be expected to carry out its own detailed analysis of what went wrong in Bihar, it does not seem ready to indict Shah for the failed campaign or consider allegations that the BJP organisation is being run in a unilateral manner under the Modi-Shah dispensation.
Shah played a key role in BJP's sweep of UP in the LS polls: a key factor in the party's outright win. His tenure also saw the party notching up wins in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, whereas successes in elections in Manipur, Kerala and Ladakh - territories lying beyond the party's known hunting grounds - have also been ascribed to his ambitious expansion plan.
