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Anirudha Karindalam
Anirudha Karindalam

New president

President ‘BJP’, PM ‘BJP’ and VP ‘BJP’—a dream come true for rightwing

modi-kovind-bjp It is the first time that a leader nurtured in the RSS is going to scale to the highest public office

With Ram Nath Kovind, 72, getting elected as the 14th president of India, and Venkaiah Naidu, 68, almost certain to be the 14th vice president of India, the three important constitutional positions of the country are going to be held by the BJP leaders. The rightwing party has reinforced its hold on power in the world’s largest democracy. “This shows that the movement of the BJP is in the right direction. There is a sense of achievement now. We have captured the imagination of people through legitimate ways,” said P. Muralidhar Rao, BJP’s national general secretary, to THE WEEK. “Our critics never thought that we will reach till this stage. When we started our journey in the early 1980s, we were seen with contempt. We were seen as an ideological outcast. Now, see where we are today,” said Rao.

It is a surge of nationalism, said Surendra Jain, the VHP’s international joint secretary, to THE WEEK, “It is a moment to rejoice as the people who believe in the rightwing ideology will hold the three most important constitutional posts in the country. It is like a dream coming true. The writing on the wall is clear. People have to decide whether they are with the nationalist forces or the anti-nationalist forces.”

Kovind, who won the presidential election with close to 65 per cent votes, will be sworn in on July 25. It is the first time that a leader nurtured in the RSS is going to scale to the highest public office. Kovind’s victory over Congress’s Meira Kumar was considered inevitable as the electoral college, consisting of members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the state assemblies, was heavily in favour of the BJP.

With Naidu most likely to be sworn in as the next vice president on August 11, and Narendra Modi appointing a bureaucrat of the Gujarat cadre, who is close to him, as the next chief election commissioner, the clutch of the rightwing on public offices has become even more stronger.

Achal Kumar Jyoti will hold the office of the CEC till January 2018. It is said there are close to 80 bureaucrats from Gujarat, serving and retired, who have been given crucial responsibilities by Modi.

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