How does BJP elect its party President?

The story so far: For the past year, J.P Nadda, the incumbent president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been on an extended tenure as the party sought to maintain stable leadership during a Lok Sabha election year. With its most recent membership drive crossing the 100 million-mark, the BJP is currently holding polls for its State party units. Following this, a new party President will be elected, as per tradition — unanimously and with the approval of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Since its inception, the BJP has always chosen its president after a ‘co-ordination’ meeting with the RSS where a suitable candidate who has majority support on both sides is selected. However, during the Lok Sabha campaign, Mr. Nadda’s assertion that the BJP was ‘capable to run on its own’ had ruffled the feathers of the RSS top brass, and RSS largely stayed away from the poll campaign. The poll result, which saw BJP form a coalition government at the Centre, forced it to re-enlist the RSS’ help for State elections. 

A five-hour meeting was held in August 2024 at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence with Mr. Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS second-in-command Dattatreya Hosabele and its joint general secretary Arun Kumar in attendance. The RSS would prefer someone with strong organisational skills, while the BJP prefers someone who ensures seamless coordination between the high command and the president’s office, reported The Hindu.

How are organisational polls held by the BJP?

Mandal & District level

During its membership drive, BJP enrolls ‘active’ members who are tasked with bringing in at least 50 persons as party members in a booth or an assembly seat. Only active members can take part in the party’s organisational elections. An ‘active’ member can take part in elections to BJP’s mandal committees and above – district, regional, State and central committees. All these committees have a three-year term.

The primary unit of the BJP is its local committee, which comprises of up to 300 members. A member who has been part of the BJP for at least a year can be elected as president of a local committee along with a stipulated number of committee members depending on the strength of the local committee.  

Many such local committees together constitute a mandal – whose committee members are elected by the president of these local committees. There are three types of mandal committees based on categorisation of the States according to the number of Lok Sabha seats they have – (a) three or less Lok Sabha seats; (b) four to twenty Lok Sabha seats; and (c) more than 20 Lok Sabha seats. These committees have an elected president and up to 60 elected members, as decided by the State executive. The mandal president has the power to nominate four vice-presidents, two general secretaries, one treasurer and not more than five secretaries. There are reserved quotas for women and Scheduled Caste/Tribe (SC/ST) members in these mandal committees. 

Similar to the mandals, the district committees are based on the State categories and the president of such a committee is elected by the mandal committee presidents. An active member can be nominated as district president if nominated by one-third of the elected mandals. A district president must be a primary member for at least six years and can appoint a general secretary (organisation) even from outside the committee. 

State level

The BJP State unit has two bodies – State Executive and State Council. Mandal committee members can elect members to the State Council proportional to strength of the State Assembly. Other members in the Council include 10% each of the party legislators and party parliamentarians, former State presidents, State executive members, leaders of the party in the State Assembly and Council, members nominated by State President, allied morchas and chiefs of cells, district committee presidents and general secretaries. 

The State executive is also classified according to the categroies of States and is headed by a president who is elected by members of the elected State council members from district units, parliamentarians and legislators. Any active member can be nominated to the president’s post if nominated by one-third of the elected district committees. The president can nominate members from different State executive categories as vice-presidents, general secretaries, general secretary (organisation), secretaries and treasurers. All the above committees have reserved quota for women and SC/ST members. 

National level

On the national stage, the BJP has the national council, national executive and the plenary session. Similar to the State council and executive, the national council members are elected by State council members in proportion with the Lok Sabha seats in the State. Other members are similar to those State council – former national presidents, all State presidents, party leaders in State assemblies, councils, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha, 10% of the Parliamentarians, members nominated by the national president, all national executive members and allied morchas and chiefs of cells. 

The national executive is headed by the party president and has no more than 120 members, of which at least 40 must be women and 12 must belong to SC/ST communities, nominated by the party president. One general secretary (organisation), one treasurer, nine general secretaries, fifteen secretaries, and thirteen vice-presidents are nominated by the party president. Only members active for at least three terms can be nominated to the executive body. Exceptions to these criteria can be granted by the party chief to not more than 15 members.

How is the party president elected?

The national president is elected by an electoral college comprising of (a) national council members who are parliamentarians or State council members and (b) State council members who are district unit members, party legislators, or party parliamentarians. Any twenty members of the electoral college can propose an active member who has been a member for at least fifteen years, for the post of national president. This proposal should come from at least five States where national council elections have been concluded. The party president’s term is for three years, and any person can hold the post for two consecutive terms.

History of BJP presidents and polls

The BJP’s first Party President was Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of its co-founders. In the 1980 general election, the BJP fared poorly, winning only two seats. After a critical appraisal of its party functioning, the party’s National Executive in 1985 decided to make BJP a cadre-based party and the responsibility was passed on to L.K. Advani – Mr. Vajpayee’s deputy. The veteran BJP leader channeled the party’s efforts into the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, making it an official resolution in the 1989 National executive meeting.

After two consecutive terms with Mr. Advani at the helm, most other party chiefs were chosen unanimously and lasted only a single term, or less. Mr. Advani’s successors – Murli Manohar Joshi, Jana Krishnamurthy, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Bangaru Laxman, Kushabhau Thakre were all deeply-rooted RSS leaders who had risen politically among the BJP ranks. Of these, only Mr. Joshi and Mr. Thakre completed a full term.

In 2003, the BJP amended its constitution to introduce a consecutive term limit, clarifying that “any member can hold the post of president for more than one term but not consecutively.” Subsequently, in 2004, after the BJP-led coalition NDA failed in its re-election bid, Mr. Naidu took moral responsibility and resigned from his post, allowing Mr. Advani to once again take over the party reins. 

In his address, he blamed his own government’s failure to “pay heed to BJP’s ideological and organizational constituency,” signalling BJP’s renewed focus on its core ideology. However, his term was cut short in 2005 when he was asked to step down as BJP chief after he eulogised Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah as ‘secular’ during a personal trip to Karachi. Since then, his ties with the RSS have remained strained.

In 2012, RSS once more pressed the BJP to amend its constitution to enable continuity in leadership. The resulting amendment, passed by the BJP national executive in Mumbai in May that year, stated that any eligible active member can hold the post of president for three years or two terms. The RSS felt that Mr. Gadkari, who had improved the party’s prospects and functioning since its poor performance in 2009, would need a second term to complete the overhauling of the BJP.

However, it was not to be as Mr. Advani continued to criticise Mr. Gadkari’s style of running the BJP and voiced his opposition to giving Mr. Gadkari a second term when he met him along with RSS General Secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi in Mumbai. Faced with tough opposition and an income tax department raid on companies related his Purti group, Mr. Gadkari suddenly opted out of the presidential polls on January 22, 2013. He was succeeded by 61-year-old Uttar Pradesh BJP veteran Rajnath Singh. 

After the spectacular poll win in May 2014 which ushered in Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, in July that year, the BJP parliamentary board approved a proposal to make Mr. Modi’s close confidant Mr. Amit Shah the next president of the BJP, cutting short Mr. Singh’s term. Armed with Mr. Shah’s organisational skills, BJP eyed expansion as well as better coordination between the party and the Centre. He was re-elected as BJP chief in 2017 and completed his full term till 2020. 

Ensuring a smooth transition, the BJP elevated J.P. Nadda – a peer of Mr. Gadkari and a former Modi cabinet member— as its working president in 2019. At the end of Mr. Shah’s term, Mr. Nadda was elected unopposed as the BJP chief. Despite receiving a one-year extension, Mr. Nadda is mostly likely to be replaced by another RSS loyalist who enjoys the favour of the Modi-Shah combine. Frontrunners include Union ministers Shivraj Chouhan, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav.