The BJP must elect its next leader

Only intra-party democracy will help the party bounce back

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

They are writing the BJP’s political obituary. And unless the BJP shows the vision, wisdom and determination that it has been lacking for the last several years, that obituary will be called for. Yet Indian politics will be adrift without a strong national counter-force to the Congress Party. A ‘New BJP’ and a ‘New NDA’, therefore, is necessary not only for its partisans, but for everyone else too.

Yesterday, a Friend of the BJP was wondering aloud which leader was capable of assuming the reins of the party leadership at this lowest of points and rebuild it into a viable national platform. While this is a fair concern, it presumes the business-as-usual method of selecting the leader—backroom parleys and discussions with the RSS leadership—will somehow suffice. Well, this might suffice for the BJP’s partisans, many of who were responsible for its ending up in the sorry state in the first place, but it is unlikely to guarantee a genuine national centre-right party with mass appeal.

For that the BJP’s card-carrying members must allowed to elect their own national leader in an intra-party election. The election will not only throw up a political leader with the necessary legitimacy to carry out the much needed rejuvenation, it might even attract mere friends of the BJP to become card-carrying members. In fact, this is an excellent opportunity to elect the party’s entire national executive though a nationwide election.

For the BJP, intra-party democracy is not only a nice-to-have, it is one of the best ways of ensuring its own survival. It’s time India demanded this of an important national political institution.

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