Newly appointed BJP Madhya Pradesh president Vishnu Dutt Sharma oozed confidence on Monday saying that there are no challenges before him as collective leadership and dedicated cadre were the strengths of the party. But the young leader has several tasks cut out before him.
Sharma, who took charge of the post on Monday in Bhopal, will not only have to re-energise the party organisation that is demoralised because of the loss of power after 15 years, but will also have to manage the senior leaders of the party in the state, many of whom had hoped for the top party post for themselves or for their near and dear ones.
Sharma, who has risen to the top post in the state quite rapidly, started with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated students’ organisation ABVP. He is clearly the choice of the Sangh and that makes his position strong.
Also, the Khajuraho MP is relatively young, at 49.
However, his appointment comes at a time when the party organisation in Madhya Pradesh is facing some low moments. Despite a narrow win in the 2018 assembly polls, the Kamal Nath-led Congress government has been quite stable for the past 14 months.
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Given the examples in Goa and Karnataka where the BJP managed to usurp power from the opposition-led governments, the party leaders’ hopes in this regard have remained only hopes as of now. As the Congress government stabilised over past few months despite several initial hiccups—both internal and external—the BJP leadership and cadre got demoralised in the state.
Known to be an aggressive opposition, the BJP was rather subdued in Madhya Pradesh under its outgoing president Rakesh Singh. Ex-chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan emerged as a solo opposition as he took upon the Congress and the government on almost each and every issue.
But it indicated that there was no coordination between the top leaders, including the state president, the leader of opposition Gopal Bhargava, and prominent leaders like Narottam Mishra and Chouhan.
Sharma is known to be an aggressive and straightforward leader, who would not mind taking upon even his own government, as he did as the ABVP regional organisation secretary and later national general secretary, more than a decade ago.
His appointment as the state BJP chief is an indication that the Sangh and the BJP top leadership want a strong and energetic leadership to spur the cadre back to action and prepare for the next assembly elections well ahead of time, political commentator Manish Dixit said.
Sharma will have to strike a balance with the senior leaders of the party in the state and see to it that there is a coordinated effort to make the Congress government uncomfortable.
In an indication of his plans, Sharma, while talking to the media, said on Monday that the Digvijaya (Singh) era was back in Madhya Pradesh and the party will deal with this with the support of the energetic workers all across the state. As for his young age, he said that the BJP was a cadre-based party and the party organisation worked on this strength and, therefore, he would not face any difficulties.
Earlier, he arrived in Bhopal to a tumultuous welcome by party workers. Bhopal-based MLAs of the party Rameshwar Sharma, Krishna Gaur, Vishwas Sarang, mayor Alok Sharma, ex-MP Alok Sanjar accompanied him in a road show from Habibganj station to the BJP office.
At the ceremony where Sharma took charge, senior leaders including Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Chouhan, outgoing president Singh, Bhargava, Mishra, Kaptan Singh Solanki and others were present.
