New Delhi, June 18 – High-profile BJP general secretary and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s confidant Amit Shah is set to take over as the next party president, according to reports. A report in the Hindustan Times has quoted an unnamed BJP leader as saying: “”The odds are stacked in his favour. Most of the senior leaders are in his favour.”
Earlier reports had said that Om Mathur, a close aide of PM Modi and in-charge of the last Gujarat assembly elections, was a frontrunner along with Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha member and party general secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda.
Nadda is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Himachal Pradesh since May 2012. He became the party’s national general secretary since May 2010. Between 1998 and 2003 and 2008 and 2010, Nadda served as the Cabinet Minister in Himachal Pradesh state government.
However, the present report says the party is choosing Shah over Nadda because of the former’s exemplary organisational skills adequately displayed during the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh where he achieved the unimaginable.
The BJP won 71 seats out of 80 seats in UP while its ally Apna Dal won another two, taking the tally to 73, it best ever in the state. Nadda was also a strong contender for the post but lost out since the BJP is looking to utilise Shah’s organisational skills in the upcoming assembly elections, the HT report said.
According to the report, the party is looking for an appropriate time to announce its decision, most probably after the government’s maiden Budget, likely in the second week of July.
-INDIA TODAY
