After Modi’s spectacular 303 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, his position was impregnable and he believed that the party’s phenomenal success was entirely due to him. (File Photo)
Powerful leaders tend to cut down potential rivals and alternative power centres. Even PMs Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi ensured that possible challengers in the party were systematically put down. Narendra Modi follows the mould and this characteristic became more pronounced after his 2019 victory.
In 2014, when Modi first won an absolute majority for his party, he swiftly pensioned off seniors like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and M M Joshi, removing them from the party’s powerful decision-making parliamentary board. In his first term, there was a restraining influence in the late Arun Jaitley who tried to induct a spirit of moderation. Jaitley, formerly their lawyer, mentored Modi and Amit Shah as they navigated the labyrinths of the Capital’s corridors of power when they first arrived. But by 2018, ill-health forced Jaitley and Goa’s Manohar Parrikar, another progressive face in the BJP, to bow out. Other seniors considered liberals, such as Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie, quit the BJP after differences with Modi.
Unchallenged boss
After Modi’s spectacular 303 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, his position was impregnable and he believed that the party’s phenomenal success was entirely due to him. Gradually, he settled scores with seniors who had once opposed the Gujarat CM’s march to Delhi. Sushma Swaraj was not included in his 2019 cabinet. Allies like Uddhav Thackeray, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Nitish Kumar were steadily downgraded and left the NDA (even if a much enfeebled Nitish has since rejoined).
CMs, beginning with those from Modi’s home state Gujarat, were discarded ruthlessly. Former party president Nitin Gadkari, always viewed as a potential threat, was stripped of his charge of the shipping ministry after 2022 and dropped from the parliamentary board. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, heavyweights Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan were not re-appointed CMs and faceless individuals took charge of the two key BJP-ruled states.
At election time, the Delhi high command arbitrarily selected politicians at will as a method to fight anti-incumbency and also send the message that the party was basically a one-man show. This was accentuated in the 2024 ticket selection, when high-profile MPs not considered malleable, including V K Singh, Varun Gandhi and Jayant Sinha, were dropped, as were loyalists like Poonam Mahajan, Sadhvi Pragya, Parvesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri. Recommendations of the CMs and even the party organising secretary were largely ignored.
Enemy within
Probably the last BJP CM remaining with individual political clout, apart from Assam’s Himanta Sarma who is not originally from the Sangh biradari, is Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath. The power tussle between Yogi and the Delhi high command is now public. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, considered close to Shah, has been sulking since Adityanath stripped him of all powers, and has been voicing his discontent openly. The inquiry committee investigating the UP parliamentary poll debacle pointed a finger indirectly at Yogi. BJP allies, who recently criticised the UP government’s actions, appear to have the tacit support of the Centre.
The CM in turn blames “overconfidence’’ for the UP setback, a hint that his views were ignored in ticket distribution. For Yogi to prove his mettle, the test case is the by-election to 10 Assembly seats. But since half the seats are SP strongholds, his challenge is tough. But can the party really afford to lose Yogi, a charismatic figure for Hindutva zealots and Thakurs? Unlike the Vajpayee-Advani era, when there were three distinct leadership tiers and promising talent was harnessed and experience rewarded, today’s second- and third-rung party leaders are increasingly faceless and without political heft.
As long as Modi delivered the vote at the elections, no one questioned his unilateralism. But with Modi’s once magical charisma and pulling power diminishing after the poll results, bottled-up resentment in the BJP and RSS is surfacing. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent remark that no one should assume that he can be a superman, suggests that all is not well in the undivided Hindutva parivar, which seldom displays its internal dissent publicly.
J P Nadda, though a minister, continues as interim party president since the selection of his successor is proving contentious. Modi’s first test of his popularity is the approaching Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where, judging by the parliamentary polls, he has a tough fight on his hands. While speculation on the longevity of the Modi government is generally pegged to the conduct of allies, it is probably more dependent on managing simmering dissensions within his own flock.
