While choosing his new playing XI, the BJP president seems set to do a fine balancing act between Advani loyalists, RSS nominees, the glamour quotient and fresh faces
While choosing his new playing XI, the BJP president seems set to do a fine balancing act between Advani loyalists, RSS nominees, the glamour quotient and fresh faces
While Varun Gandhi may be the youngest and most controversial member of the new BJP president's team, Nitin Gadkari seems to be betting on new faces, who were hitherto unknown in BJP circles, to lift the party from the morass it finds itself in.
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KYA MERA NUMBER AAYEGA? (Clockwise from left) Varun Gandhi, Hema Malini, Vasundhara Raje and Navjot Singh Sidhu |
In the case of the young MP from Pilibhit, Gadkari seems set to make Gandhi an office bearer even though a section of the party is opposed to his inclusion. This, because the RSS believes that his surname carries a certain weight among the people and that he could be projected as a Hindu mascot.
"A section of RSS leaders from UP is backing Varun either for the post of the party's UP state president or for the president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Varun, too, is interested in getting either of the two posts," said a senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
Similarly, several new young faces who have been working for front or sister organisations like Swadeshi Jagran Manch's former office bearer Muralidhar Rao and BJP Yuva Morcha president Amit Thakkar are likely to be accommodated.
A touch of glamour may find its way into the new team with the names of actresses Kiron Kher and Hema Malini, Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and designer Shaina NC doing the rounds.
Among the two Muslim faces of the party -- Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi -- one is likely to be included. Young Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, son of Himachal Pradesh CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, is also a frontrunner for the BJP Yuva Morcha president's post.
According to party sources, Gadkari may also choose several state-level leaders facing rebellion from their state party units, including Vasundhara Raje, BC Khandhuri and Arjun Munda.
Office bearers from the present team such as Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Rajiv Pratap Rudy besides incumbent general secretaries Ram Lal, Ananth Kumar and Thawar Chand Gehlot are certain to be retained.
Some of the other likely names include J P Nadda, forest minister, Himachal Pradesh, Narendra Tomar from Madhya Pradesh and Dr Harshvardhan from Delhi.
