BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda was sworn in as a cabinet minister in the third Narendra Modi ministry. This makes it clear that the BJP is sticking to its earlier announcement that Nadda will be the party chief till June 2024. His term had come to an end in January 2023 but it had been extended till June 2024 in light of the Lok Sabha elections.
This has now sparked speculation about who the next BJP president could be. The speculation further gained steam after a number of leaders who were considered possible successors – such as CR Paatil, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Bhupender Yadav – were all included in the Union cabinet.
Here are some of the leaders whose names have generated some buzz.
Sunil Bansal
Presently the BJP national general secretary, he is seen as the architect of the BJP's success in Uttar Pradesh under PM Modi and Amit Shah. He was the co-incharge of UP along with Amit Shah in 2014 and the main incharge for the 2017 Assembly elections and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state. After the UP success, he was tasked with boosting the BJP in Odisha and Telangana.
A former RSS pracharak, Bansal hails from Rajasthan and is seen as being close to Amit Shah. He also enjoys the support of a section of the RSS.
Vinod Tawde
Like Bansal, Tawde is also a national general secretary and was promoted after a good performance as national secretary. He was the coordinator for the BJP's campaign in the states where elections took place in the 2022 election cycle.
Tawde is from an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad background and has been a minister in Maharashtra. Tawde is known to be a soft-spoken and methodical leader who has made the transition from state to national politics very effectively.
He also happens to be from the Maratha community, which has been restive due to the reservation agitation. Making Tawde the BJP chief would also send a positive signal ahead of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra later this year, especially with the drubbing the BJP has faced in the state at the hands of the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Om Birla
The Speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha, Birla is also from an RSS and ABVP background. He has been re-elected from the Kota constituency, albeit by a reduced margin. Birla enjoys the trust of both PM Modi and Amit Shah as well as the RSS.
Om Mathur
A senior leader from Rajasthan, Om Mathur has also been a Pracharak of the RSS and has considerable organisational experience. He has managed the party's campaigns in states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. His most recent success was the Chhattisgarh Assembly election in 2023, a tricky election in which the BJP won a surprise victory over the Congress.
He is known to be a low-profile leader with excellent knowledge of organisational matters.
Anurag Thakur
Former Union Minister Anurag Thakur was one of the surprise exclusions from the Union council of ministers. He has held portfolios like sports and information and broadcasting in the previous Modi government and has been re-elected from the Hamirpur seat in Himachal Pradesh for the fifth time in a row. A former president of BJP's youth wing, Thakur is also not a stranger to organisational work.
However, making Thakur the BJP chief would mean having two Himachalis in the top position in a row, with JP Nadda also being from the state. Also it would mean giving BJP its first political dynast as party chief, which would be surprising given the primacy given to organisational experience in the party.
BL Santhosh
BL Santhosh is presently general secretary (organisation) in the BJP and already a power centre in the party. He has also been an RSS pracharak and known to be effective in the ideological training of cadres.
However, a section of the Karnataka BJP blames him for the 2023 election defeat in the state and this could be a negative factor for him. Also, unlike Bansal, Tawde, and Om Mathur, BL Santhosh is known to making frequent statements to the media and on social media.
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