Three brand new Chief Ministers from the back benches of the BJP’s leadership cohort — Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh, Vishnu Deo Sai in Chattisgarh, and Bhajan Lal Sharma in Rajasthan — is not the only change this year has seen in the party, with new entrants into its backroom planning also taking a bow in 2023.
The role of the chunaav prabhari or in-charge for a State heading for an election is quite important in the BJP’s organisational set-up. This is a person who belongs to a State other than the one going into polls, hence has no personal likes and dislikes, and is supposed to be empowered by the central leadership of the party to offer assurances to rebel candidates and dissenters, as well as repair organisational fault-lines.
For example, during the Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh in 2022, Union Minister and election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan largely focused on making sure the large number of disgruntled BJP workers in the State, especially in eastern U.P., were on page with the campaign.
In Madhya Pradesh, the post-script to the viral video of another Union Minister, Bhupendra Yadav, besieged by angry supporters of a ticket hopeful in Jabalpur, was an hours-long meeting that went on through the night to calm tempers.
In 2023, apart from the usual names, including those of Mr. Pradhan and Mr. Yadav, were added those of their Cabinet colleagues Pralhad Joshi, Mansukh Mandaviya and Ashwini Vaishnaw, and BJP general secretaries Sunil Bansal and Vinod Tawde.
While Mr. Joshi was in-charge of Rajasthan, and had the delicate task of balancing competing interests in the State, Mr. Vaishnaw, along with Mr. Yadav, had the uphill task of combating two kinds of anti-incumbency within the Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP — that of 18 years of BJP rule, and of a sizeable anti-incumbency against then CM Shivraj Chouhan within the party’s organisation. BJP workers in Madhya Pradesh had seemed dispirited over Mr. Chouhan’s rule, his closed system of advisors appeared insurmountable, and many felt that the Congress’ rule would at least split the BJP system open. By assuring BJP party workers that Mr. Chouhan’s return as the Chief Minister was not a given, much of that low morale was addressed.
In Rajasthan, too, the party’s central unit had made it clear that they would prefer not to repeat former CM Vasundhara Raje at the post. The challenge there was to ensure that too many rebels did not upset the apple cart, and even those considered loyal to Ms. Raje did not go against the party line once the election was underway.
In Mr. Mandaviya’s case, the Chhattisgarh assignment was both a blessing and a curse — a blessing since there was no huge leader in the State from the BJP and the party unit more or less moved together, and a curse for that very reason as the campaign had to find a focal centre. After promising that the BJP would, if elected, give more than the Congress by way of a bonus on the paddy procurement price, the BJP also announced the Mahtari Vandan Yojana for supporting women’s income, enrolling 59 lakh future beneficiaries in a week. After coming a cropper as one of the in-charges of the BJP’s campaign in the Karnataka Assembly election, which the party lost, Mr. Mandaviya ended the year on a high note.
Sunil Bansal, who had lately joined the BJP’s national team after serving as general secretary (organisation) in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the party, was in-charge of Telangana where, after a bad start in changing the party president, the BJP managed to increase its tally in both vote share and seats. Along with Mr. Tawde, Mr. Bansal has been made in-charge of a lot of internal political work in the BJP, including coordinating the Lok Sabha ‘Pravaas’ programmes of Ministers, in which they have to visit a certain number of constituencies, apart from other mass outreach initiatives run by the party.
With the Lok Sabha election just months away, many of these names will gain prominence as the BJP’s campaign for the Parliament gets underway.
