Singh, Chouhan and Raje: BJP's troika and the challenge ahead of 2019 polls

The challenges inherent in fostering a future cast of leaders are a revealing testimony to the unwillingness of those entrenched at the top to allow their compeers and juniors to grow

The reverses in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had a concomitant fallout for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), apart from demoralising the cadre and raising doubts over the popular impact of the political agendas and key policies of the Centre and the erstwhile governments. The setback upsets the RSS’s hope to nurture the next line-up of leaders for the BJP without going through the pain that gripped the process when the baton passed from a preceding generation of stalwarts to Narendra Modi. In Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh, the