Amit Shah likely to remain President till Dec

BJP President and now Home Minister Amit Shah has called a meeting of the party's national office-bearers at 11 am here on Thursday. All BJP organisational heavy hitters including state presidents, organisation mantris and state in-charges have been invited for the meeting.

The objective of the meeting is believed to be the election of new party post holders within the BJP. The meeting will be held to start the process of organisational elections which are due soon. The question doing the rounds is whether Amit Shah will demit office and hand over charge to one of two hopefuls - J.P. Nadda or Bhupendra Yadav.

Sources have indicated that there is every possibility that Amit Shah will continue as President till December this year to oversee important state elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand where BJP is the incumbent. There is also a possibility of J&K currently under President's Rule going to the polls in the interim as well.

"By October-November, the organisational polls will possibly be over. Until then, I think Amit ji will continue (as party chief)," said an office-bearer at the party headquarters.

Amit Shah's three-year term as BJP chief ended earlier this year, but he was asked to continue till the completion of the national hustings. BJP members will also be electing new state presidents for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar -- two states the party did much better than expected in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Since the juggernaut doesn't sleep, concurrently with elections to key posts, the BJP will also be kicking off its membership drive soon. Amit Shah has called a meeting of BJP general secretaries for this purpose on June 18. Each BJP general secretary will be given specific tasks for the membership drive.

--IANS

ds/aks/prs