Ahead of Assembly polls, Shah starts discussions with RSS brass

Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and J&K are slated to hold Assembly polls by January 2015

Amit Shah, the new president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has started consultations with the top leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) before appointing new office bearers in the party and in the run-up to coming Assembly elections.

At least four states, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, are slated to hold Assembly elections by January 2015. In Delhi, the BJP central leadership is increasingly of the view that the party should contest an election instead of resorting to forming a minority government.

On Thursday, Shah held discussions with senior Sangh officials, including Suresh Soni, for hours at RSS's Delhi headquarters at Jhandewalan. On Friday, Shah flew down to Nagpur to meet the RSS national leadership, including Sarsanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat.

A source said the discussions revolved around the selection of new office-bearers for the party. The meetings assume importance in the wake of Shah's elevation, which have left an impression that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants full control of the party in his hands. This has triggered resentment in some sections of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar.

The Sangh wanted all sections to be given adequate representation in the party. The source quoted above said the leaders discussed the possible roles for the two Sangh pracharaks (whole timers) - Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash -- who were deputed to the BJP recently. Madhav is likely to be made organising secretary of the party. Shah had met the leadership of all four states headed for Assembly polls earlier this week and Madhav was a key participant in the meetings.

"The president's meetings with the larger Sangh Parivar are important to keep the process of coordination frequent. This will help strengthen BJP organisationally in the upcoming Assembly elections," said a party leader.

The BJP, said sources, would need the Sangh to support the party's campaign in Delhi more than anywhere else. There is a section in the Delhi unit, backed by some leaders in the central leadership, who are keen to avoid facing another election. But the top leadership doesn't want the party to sully its image by engineering defections.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the Delhi budget in Parliament on Friday with several sops for the people of Delhi, including a subsidy to cushion the hike in power tariff announced on Thursday. The Delhi budget, sources said, was the central leadership's signal that it favours an election instead of running a minority government or engineering defections. Sources said the party leadership hopes the Sangh would instill confidence among those leaders and MLAs not keen to face an election.

"The Delhi budget reflects all concerns of an average voter in Delhi," Delhi BJP spokesperson Sanjay Kaul said.