After Governor Appointments, Is Nitin Nabin Preparing A BJP Leadership Shake-Up?

The recent appointment of Dr. Sudha Yadav as the new Governor of Karnataka is a sign that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now ready to rejig its parliamentary board, the highest decision-making body of the party.

The decision of the BJP leadership to nominate Yadav for the post of Governor of Karnataka has opened the doors of the party to restructure not just the parliamentary board but also the central election committee (CEC) since Yadav was a member of both the top committees within the party.

Although the newly elected BJP president, Nitin Nabin, has worked towards overhauling the party’s organisation and his team members, he has not yet touched the parliamentary board and CEC which are instrumental in running the BJP.

Even as Nabin formed his new team of vice presidents, general secretaries and secretaries in August, there has been a delay in the restructuring of the new parliamentary board and CEC. Nabin took almost eight months to form his new team and overhaul the BJP’s organisation.

Apart from Yadav, President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the Governor of Sikkim, Om Prakash Mathur as the Governor of Keralam, Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Braj Mohan Ram as the Governor of Odisha, and Dr. Dhal Singh Bisen as the Governor of Uttarakhand.

PM Modi’s Choice

The appointment of Dr. Sudha Yadav indicates the direct involvement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the decision to nominate names for the new Governors.

Yadav was hand-picked by PM Modi from Haryana after he helped Dr. Sudha Yadav join BJP in 1999. Yadav has closely worked with PM Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat. After the 2014 general elections, when Modi became the Prime Minister and shifted to Delhi, Yadav was made the national secretary of the BJP.

After working closely with Home Minister Amit Shah when he was the BJP chief and Yadav was made a member of the parliamentary board and CEC when union cabinet minister JP Nadda was the BJP president.

Yadav was brought to the BJP by PM Modi after she lost her husband during the Kargil war in 1999. Yadav’s husband was an officer in the Border Security Force (BSF) and he was martyred in the Kargil War while fighting against Pakistan.

The appointment of Yadav as the Governor of Karnataka is also significant because the BJP is keen to return to power in the state. Karnataka is the only state in southern India where the BJP plays a decisive role in state politics. The BJP has a marginal role in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh while the party is trying to make a mark in Telangana.           

It is not just Yadav but Dushyant Kumar Gautam, former national general secretary and former Rajya Sabha member, has also been appointed Governor of Sikkim. Gautam is a senior leader from Uttarakhand and the state is scheduled to witness elections in the next three months.