After Sharda who, is the question Job for the new incumbent
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After Sharda Devi, who ? This is the question doing the round but so far no name has emerged as the front runner but be sure that the next person will be named by Delhi. And obviously any move to name the next president of the State BJP will be effected with an eye on the coming Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in the early part of 2027. Keeping the reality in mind, particularly the conflict situation in which Manipur finds itself in since the evening of May 3, 2023, the job of the person who succeeds Sharda will be all that tougher. This is all that more so given the fact that the image of the saffron party in Manipur has taken a severe beating in the last three years and apart from the next Assembly polls, the other equally important task would be to see who is best suited to refurbish the image of the party in the eyes of the people. This is where the real job of naming the next president of the State unit of the BJP will lie. It also goes without saying that the primary duty of refurbishing the image of the party lies with the BJP led Government at Imphal, but at the same time there is something called the party machinery and it would be the job of the next person in charge to go about ensuring this. How is the big question. At the moment it is anybody’s guess who would be named the next president, but if reports coming in from sources who matter is any indication, there are quite a number of heavyweights eyeing the post. Those in line include not only the BJP loyalists but also those who have considerable political clout, and have been champions of the saffron party in the State for some time now. How Delhi studies the situation is not yet known, but naming the next president will all that more crucial for in many ways the person heading the State unit of the saffron party will have a significant say in ticket allocation. The general consensus may be that the saffron party has lost its credibility in the face of its failure to resolve the conflict which has already crossed the three year mark, and it is this which the BJP think tank would like to neutralise when the people go to vote in 2027 or whenever the next Assembly election is held. This is precisely one reason why naming the next president becomes all that more significant. Given that the conflict is now a three way clash with the Nagas being dragged in just recently, the saffron leadership will also have to weigh the community affiliation of the next president. The BJP did it when five Minister were sworn in with Yumnam Khemchand as the Chief Minister, but the post of the president of State BJP will not offer any room for such manoeuvrability. Or will the BJP leadership at Delhi follow the Ministry composition style or something along this line while naming the next president of the Manipur BJP ? This question should be considered in the context of the line, ‘In politics anything is possible, more so when there is an election to be held.’
In as much as the BJP leadership must be studying the situation before naming the next State president, the Congress too must be studying the situation with interest. How the BJP stands as a political party, its organisational efficiency will go a long way in determining how successful it is in reaching out to the people and in the process try to hardsell the positives the party has done for the benefits of the people. Such an approach may include the decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border while keeping quiet on the stand of the party on the demand that the NRC be updated with 1951 as the base year. In the same breath the BJP as a political party may try to seek maximum political mileage by pointing out how the Free Movement Regime has been tweaked to regulate entry from across the border. In the hills, particularly in the Naga dominated districts the line that may be sold may run along this line, ‘The FMR has not been abolished, but it has been streamlined so that the interests of the indigenous folks are not compromised in any manner,’ while in the valley area, the line may be ‘The FMR has been regulated and any movement will strictly be monitored now since anyone entering will be subject to finger printing etc.’ How much such lines will convince the people is another matter and to put across such lines effectively the BJP will need the right person and this is where lies the importance of the next person who is named as the president of the State BJP unit.
In as much as the BJP leadership must be studying the situation before naming the next State president, the Congress too must be studying the situation with interest. How the BJP stands as a political party, its organisational efficiency will go a long way in determining how successful it is in reaching out to the people and in the process try to hardsell the positives the party has done for the benefits of the people. Such an approach may include the decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border while keeping quiet on the stand of the party on the demand that the NRC be updated with 1951 as the base year. In the same breath the BJP as a political party may try to seek maximum political mileage by pointing out how the Free Movement Regime has been tweaked to regulate entry from across the border. In the hills, particularly in the Naga dominated districts the line that may be sold may run along this line, ‘The FMR has not been abolished, but it has been streamlined so that the interests of the indigenous folks are not compromised in any manner,’ while in the valley area, the line may be ‘The FMR has been regulated and any movement will strictly be monitored now since anyone entering will be subject to finger printing etc.’ How much such lines will convince the people is another matter and to put across such lines effectively the BJP will need the right person and this is where lies the importance of the next person who is named as the president of the State BJP unit.