Regional factionalism, leadership disputes and competing political priorities, including the Kumbh Mela and state elections, have further affected the timeline. “Our effort is to wrap up the organisational polls by 20 March as many states are moving at a very slow pace. Our team is going from state to state to expedite the process so that the national election can take place,” a party senior leader in charge of organisational polls told ThePrint.
Naresh Bansal, co-in-charge of the organisational polls, also said the party was expecting to wrap up the polls by 20 March and many state presidents would be in place before Holi.
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Infighting, Delhi polls & Kumbh
In major Hindi heartland states, the BJP has struggled to reach a consensus on a party president.
For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, multiple lists of district presidents were sent to Delhi but local leaders are still pushing for their own candidates at the mandal and district levels. As a result, the list was rejected and the election process has been delayed.
Some state BJP leaders also cite the top leadership’s involvement in the Kumbh Mela as a reason for the delay. One leader said Delhi didn’t approve the list because of inadequate representation of women and Dalits, prompting the central leadership to ask for more representation of these groups in the selection of district presidents.
“Leaders were busy with the Delhi assembly election and Kumbh. So the process got delayed. But now very soon we will complete the process of the election of district presidents and the list will be released,” Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary told reporters Sunday when asked about the delay in the organisational polls.
One BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh told ThePrint that when general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh visited Lucknow in January, he urged leaders to complete the process by 15 January. More than a month has passed since, but the list has yet to be finalised.
“Since the assembly election in 2027 will be held under the new district presidents, their role in ticket selection and election strategy is important,” the leader said.
“Every minister and MP wants their own district president in their districts because in the recent Lok Sabha election, the BJP lost many seats in UP and one of the reasons cited was that the district president and MP were not on the same page in many districts. So, there is a lot of pressure on the selection of district presidents in UP.”
In some states, the district and mandal-level presidents have been elected but the state president hasn’t been announced yet.
In Madhya Pradesh, for instance, V.D. Sharma has completed his five-year tenure as state BJP president but the party still has not zeroed in on his replacement despite the district president getting elected. “We have completed our district-level polls and the state president will be announced any time now,” said Madhya Pradesh organisational election in-charge Bhagwandas Sabnani.
Similarly, in Bihar, while district presidents have been announced, the election of state president Dilip Jaiswal has yet to take place because key leaders were busy with the Delhi election. Jaiswal, who was appointed a few months ago, is now set to be officially ratified on 4 March in the presence of a national observer.
From Uttarakhand to Himachal Pradesh, the Delhi election and party infighting were cited as major reasons for the delay in many states.
In Haryana, for instance, a feud between current state president Mohan Lal Badoli and senior leader Anil Vij has affected organisational polls. Vij, who accused Badoli of misconduct, was served a notice for indiscipline.
The local body elections in Haryana have also contributed to the delay.
In Jharkhand, the organisational polls could only begin after the assembly election held last year and are expected to be completed by the end of March.
In Himachal Pradesh, former chief minister Jairam Thakur and current state president Rajeev Bindal recently met BJP chief J.P. Nadda in Delhi to push their claims, but no decision has been made yet.
In West Bengal, where assembly elections are due next year, the election of a state president is critical after the previous president, Sukanta Majumdar, was inducted into the Union Cabinet.
But the BJP is facing intense protests from its cadres in West Bengal over the election of mandal presidents. Though the party recently appointed 1,000 out of 1,280 mandal presidents in the state, the process has sparked protests, with BJP MLA Satyendra Nath Ray even questioning the selection process.
With mandal president elections being the first step, the district president elections will take even more time, further delaying the selection of a new state president.
The strained ties between the old guard and Suvendu Adhikari, who crossed over to the BJP from the TMC, over the election of state president is another challenge for the BJP.
The BJP has completed its organisational election process in 12 smaller states and Union Territories. These are Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, Chandigarh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
The only Hindi heartland state where the process is complete is Rajasthan, where incumbent Madan Rathore has been re-elected as state president.
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Infighting in southern states
In most southern states, the election of the state BJP president has been delayed as the election for the district president hasn’t been completed and warring factions in the party are still to arrive at a consensus over their choice of state president.
In Karnataka, the election of the state president has been delayed due to internal opposition to the current state BJP chief B.Y. Vijayendra. The anti-Vijayendra faction, led by former minister Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, has threatened to field a candidate if a leadership election is held.
Senior BJP leaders—including MLAs Yatnal and Ramesh Jarkiholi, former MP G.M. Siddeshwara, and former MLAs B.P. Harish, Kumar Bangarappa and N.R. Santhosh—have openly challenged Vijayendra’s leadership.
After Yatnal’s rebellion, the central leadership sent him a disciplinary notice, but the ongoing infighting has further stalled the selection of Karnataka’s state president.
Former MLA Kumar Bangarappa has reiterated in the past that the rebel group has not backed down from contesting the election for the state president’s post. “We have not taken back our decision. If elections are held, our candidate will contest. The state president will definitely be changed. We have informed the high command about the situation in Karnataka. We are not backing down,” he said.
In Telangana, 19 district presidents have been elected but a new state president to replace G. Kishan Reddy hasn’t been elected yet because of a lack of consensus.
Reddy told reporters last week that his appointment as state president was only meant to be for three or four months, but had been extended because the appointment of a new president had been postponed for various reasons. However, he said the state would have a new president before local body polls which are expected in March.
However, party sources said infighting over the next state president has delayed the decision, with the central leadership yet to make a final call. When Bandi Sanjay was replaced as state president in July 2023, one reason for bringing G. Kishan Reddy was his acceptability among all factions.
Now that Reddy is a Union minister, an election for the post of state president is on the cards.
In recent days, MLC Ramchander Rao was in Delhi lobbying for the position, though many senior leaders did not meet him due to the Parliament session. The delay stems from the party’s failure to build a consensus among a host of contenders, including former minister Eatala Rajender, BJP national vice president D.K. Aruna, and Ramchander Rao.
In Tamil Nadu and Kerala where Assembly elections are due next year, the BJP is still to take a call on whether to stick with incumbents or pick a new president.
K. Annamalai has been state president in Tamil Nadu since July 2021 while K. Surendran has been in the position in Kerala since February 2020 despite opposition from within the party.
The party lost the 2021 Assembly election under Surendran’s leadership party but made inroads in last year’s Lok Sabha election, winning its first parliamentary seat in the state.
Despite the recent Palakkad bypoll setback, the BJP leadership has resisted pressure from the anti-Surendran camp. One line of thought among party leaders is to retain K. Surendran as state president for the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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