New Delhi: Elections for the next BJP president are likely to be held later this year with Union Home Minister Amit Shah continuing in the post till then, sources said on Thursday after a crucial party meeting.
The meeting was called to decide whether the BJP will have a new president before the next round of assembly polls in the coming months or the change of guard will happen in January 2020 when Shah’s three-year term comes to an end.
Sources said the party will fight the upcoming Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand elections under Shah’s leadership.
The other big announcement was the decision to increase the the party's footprint by at least 20% over the next three years, for which BJP's Parliamentary board member Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been named chief.
"Despite winning 303 seats, in 220 of which we got more than 50% of the vote share, we haven't reached our peak yet," party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav said after the meeting concluded. "In the last five years, the BJP had expanded number its party workers to over 11 crore and the number of trained workers had increased to over 10 lakh. Over four lakh members were part of our 'vistarak' committees."
Yadav said the party has decided to celebrate the achievement of the organisation through a 'Sangathan Parv' by which the BJP will try to increase the number of its workers by a minimum of 20%. Chouhan will head this committee, which will also comprise Dushyant Gautam, one of the current vice-presidents.
"After the 'Sangathan Parv' celebrations, we will announce the party's programmes for elections," Yadav said. Elections scheduled in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra may be the last to be fought Shah's leadership.
All office bearers, state in-charges and co-incharges, general secretaries, secretary (organisation) and state presidents were present at the meeting where the organisational election schedule was also finalised.
Yadav said the organisational polls will be held once the party’s membership drive ends, which may take months.
After Shah was nominated to the Union cabinet, it was widely expected that the BJP will have a new president. Similar procedure was followed in 2014 when Rajnath Singh demitted office as the BJP chief after being made Home Minister in the Modi government.
Shah replaced Rajnath as the organisational head, and completed his predecessor’s remaining term.
The organisational election process in the BJP starts later this year and culminates with the election of national president in January 2020. The amended BJP constitution stipulates for two full three-year term for the post of the party president.