New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, July 4 appointed new state presidents in four states, in what it termed a routine 'organisational rejig'.

However, given how social representation has been so significant for the BJP over the last few years, the new replacements indicate a change of political strategy in these respective states.

All the new appointees have something in common. All of them enjoy a clean image; all are mass leaders; and all of them represent the new social representation strategy of the Narendra Modi-led BJP.

Jharkhand

The appointment of senior adivasi leader and former chief minister Babulal Marandi as the new BJP’s state unit president indicates a shift from the party’s previous experiment of consolidating the non-adivasis of the state.

Marandi – who merged his own party Jharkhand Vikas Morcha with the BJP in 2020, after a poor performance in the last assembly elections – commands respect and enjoys a clean image among both the adivasis and non-adivasis.

The BJP had appointed non-adivasi leaders Raghubar Das and Deepak Prakash as the chief minister and state unit president, respectively, earlier. However, the saffron party ended up alienating a large chunk of adivasis of the state.

The Raghubar Das government saw the biggest mass agitations in the state because of its various policy initiatives that were perceived negatively by different adivasi communities.

In contrast, Marandi has been one of the most vocal leaders in advocating adivasi rights on land and resources of the state. He had earlier left the BJP in 2022 when the latter replaced him with Arjun Munda as its adivasi face and the chief minister.

Also read: Caste Is the Achilles Heel of Hindutva Politics

Punjab

The BJP has appointed Sunil Jakhar, the Congress rebel leader, as its new state president.

Jakhar had joined the BJP after the Congress appointed his party rival Charanjit Singh Channi as the chief ministerial candidate. In the Congress, Jakhar was one of the staunchest critics of the BJP. He had said that he would be quitting active politics after the Congress snub but his move to join the BJP ranks had surprised many.

By rewarding Jakhar with the top organisational post in the state, there is considerable dissension in the party’s state unit.

Ashwani Kumar Sharma, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader, had been a long-time state president but the BJP has been consistently performing poorly under his leadership. The saffron party is influential only in the pockets of the Sikh-majority state. Following its break-up with the Shiromani Akali Dal in the aftermath of the farmers’ movement, its fortunes have dwindled further.

Jakhar’s appointment appears to be yet another attempt by the BJP to consolidate the minority Hindus, who are veering towards the Aam Aadmi Party. His image is clean, and he has never faced any corruption allegations. The BJP is said to be in talks with the Akalis, its former ally, and revive the coalition in a bid to corner a majority of Hindus and Sikhs of the state.

Telangana 

In this poll-bound state, where the BJP hopes to gain a southern footprint, the party has appointed its Union minister G. Kishan Reddy as its new state president. He has replaced Lok Sabha MP Bandi Sanjay, who is largely credited with expanding the BJP footprint in the state.

In 2019, Sanjay’s leadership fetched the BJP four parliamentary seats – a formidable debut in the southern state. He was awarded the party president’s post in 2020, and was given the responsibility to prepare the party for the next assembly elections.

However, Sanjay’s apparent rivalry with Etela Rajender perhaps cost him the state unit’s position. Former Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) senior leader Etela Rajender, who rebelled against Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, joined the BJP in 2020, and has since then become an asset for the party. He is credited for the BJP wins in important bypolls of the state, following which the saffron party began to be perceived as a significant opposition party.

Rajender has been given the responsibility to steer the party ship in the 2023 assembly polls and has been made the campaign in-charge. Both Sanjay and Rajender belong to non-dominant OBC communities.

Their appointments reflected the party’s strategy to consolidate non-dominant OBC communities against the ruling BRS, which is seen as a party largely representative of the interests of the dominant Velama caste group.

However, multiple observers believed that a large section of ‘upper’ caste Reddys, Brahmins and others, who were the most prominent decision-makers in the Telangana BJP earlier, felt sidelined with both Sanjay and Rajender’s appointment.

In this regard, Reddy’s appointment as the new BJP president appears to be an appeasement strategy for the party, while sticking to its OBC outreach formula.

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Andhra Pradesh

With the YSR Congress Party and TDP as dominant players, the BJP has struggled to be seen as a serious political player in the state.

Precisely for this reason, the BJP has finally sought refuge in a popular leader D. Purandeswari, daughter of Telugu film industry’s biggest superstar and former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao.

The decision has come at a time when the BJP’s attempts to forge a pre-poll coalition with the TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party is faltering. The failure to stitch up a social coalition has forced the party to appoint Purandeswari, who emerged as a leader only as a Congress MP in the state.

By trying to engage the TDP and Jana Sena Party, the saffron party wanted to tap into the influential Kamma and Kapu communities, represented respectively by the two regional parties. However, with none of that tactic working out, the BJP wants to gain from NTR’s legacy, even as that may push the Kamma-driven TDP further into a corner.

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