RSS wants BJP to change its constitution.
Sweeping changes beckon the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as 52-year-old Nitin Jairam Gadkari takes over amidst daunting challenges.
After having pitch-forked a young face on the Parivar’s political front, the RSS now wants the BJP to adopt a new constitution — one that bifurcates the organisational and parliamentary streams, with the former wresting full control of the latter. The Sangh wants that the organisational common should be supreme but should not contest elections.
On Sunday afternoon, after his arrival in Nagpur, Gadkari made it clear he won’t contest elections for three years, but the party would decide whether he should stay in the Maharashtra legislative council.
Sangh sources said that the BJP’s organisational wing headed by Gadkari must stay away from the parliamentary board headed by Sushma Swaraj, but hold full powers on all policy matters. “The organisation will decide who gets what responsibility.”
When it was formed in 1979-80, the BJP adopted its constitution from the Congress (O) and not the Jan Sangh, party sources said. “Nowhere in the constitution has it been written that a party head can’t — and shouldn’t — contest elections,” a source said.
In his column in Sangh mouthpiece Tarun Bharat, veteran RSS ideologue MG alias Baburao Vaidya echoed a similar expectation from Gadkari, who, he suggested, should appoint a committee to study and draft the party’s new constitution after studying Jan Sangh’s charter.
He cited the example of the CPI(M), whose general secretary (eg: former Harkishan Singh Surjeet and present, Prakash Karat) never contests elections. The CPI(M) organisational head focuses on party affairs but is seized of policy matters, he wrote.
During the Vajpayee-Advani era, the organisational posts became secondary, he wrote.
In the new charter, the BJP president’s tenure should be extended to five years, Vaidya said. “MLA or MP stays five years. Why can’t a party president?” The current tenure is three years.
In the instance of differences between the two streams, the organisational wing should always prevail over the parliamentary board, wrote Vaidya, who doesn’t hold any post in the RSS but has been part of its think tank for many years.
Vaidya said that Gadkari should resign from the legislative council. “You (Gadkari) must concentrate on party affairs with an eye on 2014 (next Lok Sabha polls). Parliamentary affairs are best left to Advani and Joshi.”
Gadkari expected to pick younger leaders
New Delhi:
All eyes are on how new BJP president Nitin Gadkari puts together his team.
Sources in the party say that many of the RSS’ younger leaders may be put in strategic positions in the BJP or in the RSS’ interface with the BJP. There’s speculation that former general secretary (organisation) Sanjay Joshi, who had to resign over an alleged sex tape, will be rehabilitated. Dattatreya Hosabale, who is a future sarsanghchalak in the RSS, is expected to be the interface between the RSS and the BJP. “However, Gadkari’s main challenge will be to set up a team of office-bearers,” said the source.
“As Gadkari said, he is junior to many office-bearers in the present team. Therefore, we could see younger people being moved to Delhi from other states,” said a senior MP. — Nistula Hebbar
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