Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced new state presidents for four states. Among the four leaders who have been given the responsibility, there are two faces who started not with BJP but with Congress. This is being seen as a sign of a major change in the organizational thinking of BJP. In Punjab, the party has made senior leader Sardar Kewal Singh Dhillon the state president. Dhillon remained active in Congress politics for a long time and was considered a good influence in the Malwa region. He was elected MLA from Barnala on Congress ticket in 2007 and 2012. He had registered a big victory in the 2012 elections. Apart from this, he has also held the responsibility of Vice President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
However, his political graph weakened somewhat in later years. He had to face defeat in the 2017 assembly elections and 2019 Sangrur Lok Sabha elections. After this he left Congress and joined BJP. Now by giving him the command of the Punjab unit, the party has indicated that it wants to move forward with new equations in the politics of the state.
Command given to Abhishek Debroy in Tripura
Abhishek Debroy has been made the state president in Tripura. He was currently handling the responsibility of BJP organization in Gomti district and was also elected MLA in 2023. The interesting thing is that his initial political journey was also associated with Congress. Later he joined BJP and has now reached an important role in the organization.
In general, BJP has made non-BJP leaders the Chief Ministers of many states, but in general, the party has always given opportunities to the leaders of the original cadre of the party on high positions in the organization. However, even before this in Punjab, BJP had made Sunil Jakhar from non-BJP background the state president in 2023.
BJP changed strategy in such states
The BJP has long been considered a cadre-based and ideologically disciplined party, where senior positions in the organization generally went to leaders who had been associated with the party and its ideological framework for years. However, in the recent past, the party has changed its strategy especially in those states where it feels the need for expansion on the basis of social and regional equations.
Punjab is considered to be a big example of this. Earlier in 2023, Sunil Jakhar, who joined BJP from Congress, was also made the state president. In such a situation, the appointment of Singh Dhillon is being considered as an extension of the same strategy. Although BJP has an image of giving limited opportunities to outside leaders in the organization, at the level of power and government, the party has earlier also been giving big responsibilities to leaders from other parties.
Big posts given to leaders from other parties
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Bihar’s Samrat Chaudhary, West Bengal’s Subhendu Adhikari, Tripura’s Chief Minister Manik Saha, Arunachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister Pema Khandu and former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh is one such example, who achieved an important position in the party after joining BJP from other parties.
BJP is now giving more importance to leaders with local influence in those states where the party is still in the phase of its expansion. The party gets double benefit from this. On one hand, strong faces of the opposition are included and on the other hand, efforts are made to increase acceptance at the local level.
Looking at these appointments, it can definitely be said that instead of limiting itself to traditional cadre politics, BJP is no longer lagging behind in conducting organizational experiments as per the electoral needs and social equations.
Leave a Reply