Divided party leadership - a major crisis in BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party no doubt is in a weird phase of leadership crisis which came into light with the secret voting system in the Bihar unit of the party. Despite gaining a winning momentum in some of the major assembly elections including Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, the party seems to lose its track ahead of general elections.

Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi will continue on his post as he passed on a popularity check through a “secret ballot” conducted on Sunday in a bid to sort-out the internal crisis due to growing rebel in state leadership issue.

Trying to sort out the crisis in its Bihar unit, the BJP on Sunday called upon its MLAs and MLCs to have in an inner party democracy voted for Modi keeping his hold in state legislature. This completely exposed rebel league’s intent who wanted Modi to move out.

This was for the first time in party’s history that such part of internal crisis sorted out holding a secret voting. On Sunday’s vote out, a total of 55 MLAs and 14 MLCs were asked to submit in written, whether they were satisfied with Modi’s leadership or not. Two MLAs, Ajay Singh and Sunil Kumar remained out of the secret vote out.

Two of the senior party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu reportedly confirmed the leadership of Modi in Bihar; however, a high-level meeting will be held on Monday to accesses the present crisis and the number of rebels which may oust more severe crisis considering other states.

It is to be mentioned here that long since MLAs in the state unit have been demanding Modi's removal as deputy chief minister which erupted last month after a cabinet reshuffling, dropping out some BJP leaders from the list. But as the rebel outfit couldn’t gain the support, the central leadership has got another chance to reach out the leaders who are unhappy; otherwise the secret ballot may pose similar demands in other states.

The leadership of BJP whether the Atal-Advani tale or the younger generation in central leadership including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley or Sushma Swaraj, has been a bone of contention, though it has not come out in front. However, the new leadership in states with such weakness in holding the party together might pose a serious challenge in sustaining the party and a foremost NDA alliance as a whole.