Amit Shah to Continue as BJP President Till Party Polls Are Over
NEW DELHI : Amit Shah, India’s Home Minister, is likely to continue as chief of the ruling BJP for at least six more months, during which the party’s internal elections will be held, sources say.
A final decision on whether the BJP will elect a new president right away or after its organizational polls will be taken in meetings the party chief will hold over the next few days.
BJP president Amit Shah will chair a meeting with chiefs and general secretaries of the party’s state units on Thursday to finalise the details, including schedule, of its organisational polls that may lead to the election of his successor.
A party leader said it may take several months before the organisational polls are over, and Shah, now home minister in the Modi government, may continue as its president till then.
Party sources said the meeting will decide on the schedule for organisational elections in its units, from both-level upwards, and membership drive, a customary exercise during the internal polls.
A new party president can be elected only after the process is over, he said, adding that it may stretch till October-November. The party’s parliamentary board, its apex decision making body, can appoint a new president during this period, the leader added, noting that it will mostly depend on how Shah will like the exercise to continue.
With assembly polls in three BJP-ruled states — Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra — due later this year, the party may like him to continue with the organisational responsibility, the sources said.
Shah, whose three-year term as BJP chief had ended earlier this year, was asked to continue in the position as the party had put on hold organisational elections to focus on Lok Sabha polls.
With the party notching up an unprecedented victory in the general election, bagging 303 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, Shah has moved on to preparing the organisation for assembly polls in three states and laying the groundwork for its internal elections.
He had on June 9 held separate meetings with core groups of party units in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana to deliberate on the BJP’s strategy in these assembly poll-bound states.(With Agency Inputs ).
