India’s BJP name new party boss
INDIA: Bharatiya Janata Party completed a leadership change Saturday,
naming a new party chief after appointing a woman as parliamentary
opposition leader in a bid to revive their political fortunes.
Nitin Gadkari, 52, was greeted with bouquets and garlands as outgoing
Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party, BJP) president Rajnath
Singh announced his successor at the group’s headquarters in New Delhi.
“There was complete unanimity on Gadkari’s name for president,” Singh
told reporters as the BJP attempts to bounce back from a trouncing in
elections this year.
Gadkari, who joined the student wing of the BJP in 1976, rose through
the ranks to head the party’s regional chapter in western Maharashtra
state in 2004.
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BJP |
| * Nitin
Gadkari new party chief
* Appoints a woman as opposition
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“Cultural nationalism is the inspiration,” Gadkari was quoted as
telling reporters by the Press Trust of India news agency.
“I will follow the nationalist ideology of the party... I will not do
anything which will let the leaders down.”
His elevation follows the appointment on Friday of 57-year-old Sushma
Swaraj as opposition leader in place of 82-year-old former deputy prime
minister and home minister Lal Krishna Advani. The appointments end
months of suspense over a long-awaited leadership change following the
BJP’s heavy defeat at the hands of the ruling Congress party in the
April-May national polls.
The BJP, which governed India between 1998 and 2004, won just 116
seats in the 543 directly elected lower house of India’s parliament
under 58-year-old Singh’s leadership.
It also lost out to the Congress party in key state polls in October.
Political commentator and author Rasheed Kidwai said Gadkari and Swaraj
would first have to focus on quelling dissidence within the BJP.
“The BJP is down but not out and by infusing fresh blood, senior
leaders are hoping to arrest the decline in the party,” said Kidwai, who
has authored a biography of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. Though
relatively obscure, Gadkari “is a team man, a go-getter and seen as
performer,” Kidwai said.
“Gadkari will aim to accommodate the minorities and marginalised
groups in a bid to widen the party’s appeal.”
New Delhi, Sunday, AFP |
