Who will be the next President? Speculation has already started amid Shiv Sena’s mischievous suggestion to nominate RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. According to BJP circles, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have begun the exercise to shortlist possible candidates. They have tapped a group of political and non-political persons to come up with names.
Despite its stunning victories in UP and Uttarakhand, the BJP will need the help of allies and some regional parties to elect the next president. It is slightly short of numbers in the electoral college. The choice then has to be someone who is broadly acceptable so that parties like TDP, AIADMK and BJP come on board.

Modi likes to spring surprises and do the unexpected. Atal Behari Vajpayee astonished political circles with his choice of eminent scientist APJ Abdul Kalam as president to succeed K R Narayanan. According to BJP circles, Modi wants to do something similar.

They believe that Modi will choose a non-politician with an impressive body of work in his or her field so that no one can point a finger. Interestingly, they feel that regional considerations will also weigh with the PM. For instance, the BJP’s next thrust areas for political expansion are the south and northeast. It is possible that the choice of both the next president and vice president will be from these regions.

Centre of attraction

BJD MP Jay Panda was the centre of attraction in Parliament last week for his critique of the decline of his party. He wrote an article for an Odia paper which listed what is wrong with the BJD and was obliquely critical of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik for letting down the ideals of the party and not creating a line of succession.

What was interesting was that most of those who came up to Panda to compliment him for speaking his mind about the sorry state of affairs in his party were Congress MPs who too are deeply worried about the drift and leadership crisis in their organization.

When asked why they don’t speak up like Panda, most of them demurred. One said they don’t dare say anything for fear of being thrown out. Another said sarcastically that they are happy with the way things are in the Congress.
Clearly, Congress MPs feel that Panda’s critique of the BJD could have been a critique of the Congress party. No Congress MP dare express it but it is obvious that many are unsure about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and political skills and would like Sonia Gandhi to create a collective that would take charge of the party with Rahul as a figurehead.

New faces

The BJP’s decision to change most of its sitting corporators in Delhi and fight the municipal polls with a clean slate has its origins in an experiment Modi tried in Gujarat in 2010. That year, the BJP swept the civic elections to win a two-thirds majority in virtually all the municipal bodies.

Two factors contributed to the BJP’s stunning performance in Gujarat in 2010, which far outstripped its victory in 2005. One was Modi’s gamble to field new faces. He replaced almost all sitting corporators and gave tickets to fresh candidates with spotless reputations. The other was to put his personal prestige at stake. He campaigned for the civic election as if it was an assembly poll and made it all about Modi.

Buoyed by the performance in UP, Modi and Shah have decided to adopt the Gujarat model in Delhi. Some 90  per cent of sitting corporators have been denied tickets and replaced with new faces. It seems the party invited applications for the election. Around 40,000 people applied for tickets. The list was whittled down to 3,000 from which the candidates were chosen.

Despite his humiliating experience in the 2015 Delhi assembly polls, in which Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP swept 67 of the 70 seats and reduced the BJP to just 3, Modi is ready to risk his reputation and image once again in the capital even though it’s for a municipal poll. He will lead the BJP’s campaign in Delhi assisted by a star list of ministers and leaders. The motto of the Modi-Shah duo is to win every election, small or big.

Crunch time

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury had an embarrassing moment at his press briefing last week. The Railways canteen which provides the snacks and tea for all press conferences in Parliament House served Ramdev’s Patanjali biscuits to the journalists who had gathered to hear Sitaram.

Few have forgotten the strong attack CPM leader Brinda Karat launched against Ramdev some years. She had accused him of using animal bones and other questionable ingredients in his products.

The journalists pounced on Sitaram to ask how he had allowed Patanjali biscuits to be served. The CPM leader smiled in an embarrassed manner and blamed it on the Railways canteen. Interestingly, the biscuits were a copy of the popular Marie biscuits. Ramdev has called his produce Meri instead of Marie!