BJP back in election mode: Key meeting on June 13

New Delhi, June 11: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah will hold a meeting with the chiefs and general secretaries (organisations) of the party's all state and Union Territory units, besides its national office bearers on June 13, setting in motion the process for organisational polls which may culminate in the election of his successor.

After the party chief, general secretary in charge of organisation is the second most crucial position in the BJP, be it at the state or the national level.

The organisational meeting may continue on June 14 as well, a party leader said.
Shah, whose three-year term as BJP chief had ended earlier this year, was asked to continue in the position as the party had put on hold organisational elections to focus on Lok Sabha polls.

With the party notching up an unprecedented victory in the general election, bagging 303 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, Shah has moved on to preparing the organisation for assembly polls in three states and laying the groundwork for its internal elections.

He had on Sunday held separate meetings with core groups of party units in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana to deliberate on the BJP's strategy in these assembly poll-bound states.

A party leader said the exercise to finish organisational polls can take three-four months and a national president can be elected -- which has been conventionally done by consensus -- only after organisation polls in at least 50 per cent of the states and Union Territories are over.

With Shah being inducted as the home minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there is a view within the BJP that he will not continue as the party president.

However, the BJP refrained from making any official comment on Shah's likely move.

Key organisation leaders like J P Nadda and Bhupender Yadav are being seen as among the likely contenders for the top post.