RSS leader Ram Madhav
Credit: DH Photo/ S K Dinesh
New Delhi: Back into the party’s affairs after four years, the comeback of Ram Madhav yet again signals the changing dynamics within the BJP after its poor show in the Lok Sabha polls.
Madhav, an expert on J&K affairs who has also served as an interlocutor for Sajjad Lone and Haseeb Drabu, has been given a position in the party after his tenure as general secretary ended in 2020.
The party, on Tuesday, named him the in-charge for the upcoming assembly polls in J&K, the first in the region since 2014 and the first since the Abrogation of Article 370. He will be assisted by Union minister G Kishan Reddy.
Madhav, formerly a spokesperson of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was brought into the fold of the BJP in 2014, with Assam being one of his early assignments. By 2016, due to his contributions and entry of Congress strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma into the party, the BJP formed its first government under Sarbananda Sonowal in Assam. This led to the BJP consequently forming governments in other states in the region.
In 2014, the BJP emerged as the second largest party in J&K, with 25 seats in the 111-member assembly, behind only the People’s Democratic Party which won 28 seats. He was instrumental in stitching the PDP-BJP alliance, a coalition of two parties on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum.
Madhav later rose to be a general secretary of the BJP, but soon after his tenure ended in 2019, the BJP did not give him any responsibility, leading to rumours that his relations with the top brass had soured.
Sources in the BJP said that Madhav’s appointment came after meetings between the RSS and the BJP with the latter agreeing to relying on his expertise in the region for the crucial upcoming elections. Ironically, Madhav was kept out of the discussions on the Abrogation of Article 370.
Madhav’s appointment signals the changing dynamics in the party. The BJP and the RSS have held several meetings in the last few days, with the BJP entrusting two senior Union ministers with the task of pacifying the RSS. The saffron outfit has demanded that the BJP appoints a working president ahead of the Sammanway Baithak in Palakkad at the end of this month.
The equations between the BJP and the RSS were seemingly strained during the Lok Sabha elections when the RSS cadre had refused to extend their organisational help to the BJP. It did not help matters when BJP president JP Nadda said in an interview that the BJP was “saksham” (competent enough) and did not need the RSS as much as it did in the past.