Govindacharya Set To Get Key Role
BJP general secretary K N Govindacharya is certain to become the general secretary in charge for organisation after the incumbent, Kushabhau Thakre, takes over as party president this weekend. But the party constitution is not to be amended to formalise his status as number two.
Govindacharya is certain to be a key figure in the party under Thakre. There had been a proposal to amend the party constitution to make him the partys orgnising secretary - a post that was most crucial in the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, precursor of the BJP.
There is no proposal to amend the party constitution on this line, BJP vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy said yesterday, adding that there was no difference between the posts of general secretary in charge of organisation and organising secretary.
The party rules have already been amended to allow only those functioning like Communist fulltimers to become general secretary in charge of organisation. The incumbent is banned from contesting elections for two years after relinquishing charge as per the new rules.
Thakre, KN Govindacharya and some other leaders are likely to stay on in Gandhinagar after the council meeting in order to finalise the list of new office-bearers, national executive members and morcha chiefs.
The BJPs two-day national council meeting, which begins in Gandhinagar tomorrow, will mark the beginning of the first stint of an organisational person as president in the partys 18-year history. The incumbent, LK Advani, will hand over charge to Thakre after inaugurating the meeting.
The post has hitherto rotated between AB Vajpayee and Advani, except for the brief one-term stint of Murli Manohar Joshi. All the three were active in legislative politics, BJP vice-president KL Sharma pointed out yesterday. He compared Thakres elevation as party president with that of Deen Dayal Upadhayayas in the Bharatiya Jan Sangha in 1967.
The council meeting is taking place after a gap of more than two years. The last was held as a plenary in Mumbai in 1995. The 3,000-odd delegates are likely to keenly participate in the debate on the draft political resolution, which will be prepared by the national executive meeting on Saturday.
As the national executive is coterminous with the president, it would function only as a subject committee for the council, Sharma said. The executive is unlikely to take any decision and even the task of creating a coordination panel between the party and the government is likely to be taken up later, he added.