The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gujarat unit Thursday declared the much-awaited names of the new presidents of most of the district and city units of the party, nearly six weeks after carrying out the “sense taking” exercise.
Of the total 35 presidents, including six cities, at least 22 leaders with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background have been handed out the task of “strengthening the organisation”, in the wake of the factional wars in several parts of the state, according to the sources.
In the appointments so far, only one is a woman, Binaben Kothari, who has been appointed the president of Jamnagar city unit, and is a former general secretary of the party’s Mahila Morcha. In Vadodara city, the party opted for Jay Prakash Soni, who has strong RSS roots and has completed the Third Year Sangh Shiksha Varg (SSV).Soni is also the former Vadodara city Karyavah (general secretary) of the RSS and was recently serving as registrar of the Kundhela campus of the Central University of Gujarat. Party leaders said that he resigned from the post of registrar at the insistence of RSS brass and the BJP to take up the post of city president in Vadodara.
Soni’s appointment comes in wake of factionalism in the city unit, where leaders have been “seen indulging in public spats”— the most recent one to occur was during the “sense taking process” of the party when former deputy mayor Sunita Shukla and former corporator Gopi Talati indulged in a public argument. A BJP senior leader on the condition of anonymity said, “In most of the units, the picks are those who can keep the flock together as they do not belong to any faction to begin with. Most of the names have come as a ‘surprise’ to the local units but the party has sent out a message that those indulging in factional wars will not gain. Also, bringing in fresh faces, who have not been too vocal in the areas gives a chance to receive a new perspective to the party.”
Spotlight on OBC leaders
Like Vadodara city, the BJP has also made a significant change in Bharuch and Narmada districts that also have a dominant tribal population. Departing from the usual norm of appointing a Patidar or Kshatriya leader, the party chose OBC leaders to head the district units of Narmada and Bharuch— a first-time move. While 37-year-old Neel Rao has been chosen to head the Narmada district unit, for the Bharuch district unit, the party has picked a lawyer, Prakash Modi, who has formerly held the post of the Bharuch district and city legal cell of the party. Rao, currently a general secretary with the Narmada District unit, also has RSS roots and has completed the RSS’s Second Year SSV. He is married to the niece of former Nandod BJP MLA Shabdasharan Tadvi. According to the senior leaders familiar with the developments, Rao has been picked for the tribal district to “influence the youth” as he is the former district vice president of the Yuva Morcha.
A BJP leader said, “Rao is an OBC but his wife is a tribal from the Tadvi community and he will be influential for the party to counter the craze of (AAP MLA) Chaitar Vasava among the youth. The party has been looking at bringing a young face to the front in the tribal belt and this is an attempt at that…”
In Chhota Udepur, too, the party had fielded Umesh Rathwa — a relative of former Lok Sabha MP Ramsinh Rathwa. The selection came as a surprise as the common notion had been that the sitting district unit president Upendra Rathwa would be re-elected, especially since he oversaw the recent local body polls where the BJP formed a board in the Chhota Udepur Municipality for the first time in 25 years. Umesh Rathwa, who holds a Masters in social work as well as a law degree, has also held the post of former district vice-president. He is currently a member of the Chhota Udepur District Panchayat.
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The party has picked a former convenor of Bajrang Dal from Limkheda, Snehal Dharia, to head the Dahod district unit. Dharia is also the sitting general secretary of the Dahod BJP unit. In Mahisagar the party has repeated the sitting district president Dashrath Baria, who is a former Sangh Mandal general secretary. A senior state BJP leader said: “In the tribal districts, the party has mostly picked presidents with tribal roots as there is a lot of focus on promoting ideology and strengthening the ground for the 2027 polls although the party has already swept across most of the Assembly constituencies in 2022”.
“The selections have been made from the list of aspirants but there is no denying that a lot of thought has gone into choosing the leaders for each unit, keeping in mind the detrimental effects of infighting between lobbies that have dented the party’s image,” added the senior BJP leader. “Since the Sangh had also appointed observers in each district after the Lok Sabha results, the recommendations have definitely been considered during this revamp,” the leader quoted above added. The party is yet to announce the presidents for districts of Vadodara District, Kheda, Gandhinagar city, Ahmedabad, Porbandar and Panchmahal.
Meanwhile, the state parliamentary board has re-elected Surat district BJP president Bharat Rathod and Navsari BJP president Bhuralal Shah for a second term. A fresh face in Paresh Patel was selected as Surat city BJP president.
The BJP councillor and former Surat Municipal Corporation Standing Committee chairman had been a pioneer in starting Class 11 and 12 classes in commerce and science streams for municipal school students in Surat.
With ENS inputs from Surat