Times of India

NEW DELHI, Jun 3: After four years of drift, division and muddled thinking, BJP appears to be getting its act together.

The Karnataka win has set the stage for the party inking an election-oriented action plan that combines aggression against Congress with in-house organizational refurbishing.

The BJP's national executive's deliberations over two days have seen a greater focus on tasks at hand in comparison to previous meetings that were invariably affected by leadership issues. Discussions were candid, with the party's weaknesses being appreciated as much as recent successes.

What has helped the party avoid getting embroiled in its own conflicts is that the executive met in the backdrop of some important shifts in the party's inner equilibrium. The power equations are more firmly drawn with leaders who have rallied behind Leader of opposition L K Advani now calling the shots in the party.

This is rather different than was the case earlier. Ever since BJP president Rajnath Singh began his three-year term, his efforts to sideline potential rivals had thrown BJP into turmoil.

But the official faction has been forced onto the backfoot with Narendra Modi winning Gujarat and Arun Jaitley's astute election management seeing BJP home and dry in Karnataka. Having had to accept Advani as PM candidate, Rajnath and those who made common cause with him had perhaps still hoped to retain their clout through factional strategies. This gameplan has been dealt a blow by electoral victories in which Rajnath has been unable to claim any credit.

Differences within BJP haven't disappeared and Singh's supporters are not conceding defeat either — some argue that the party's upswing coincides with his taking charge — and rivalries amongst gen-next leaders remain as sharp as ever.

But a new pecking order is emerging which has also coincided with RSS indicating that it had not given Rajnath a blank cheque. All this meant that the executive concentrated on identifying inflation, terrorism, farm woes and minority vote bank politics as election issues. Apart from a concerted attack on Congress and UPA, the party is setting up committees to report on organizational issues in poll-bound states. It is also looking to identify candidates and issues in states like UP where it has suffered a sharp decline.

With close to 30 members participating, the political resolution was discussed in depth. Some members felt that the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh needed to be stressed more. What is remarkable is that speakers seemed in sync with each other and barbs aimed at one another were less evident. With the political map showing Congress largely restricted to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, there was a feeling that BJP could be in with a chance.

The shoddiness that has crept into the organization remains a concern as when the "resolution on prices", drafted by a party "intellectual", had to be reworked given the number of changes required. But overall the mood was positive, even with regard to anti-incumbency worries in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where the party seems prepared to replace large number of sitting MLAs to neutralize local disenchantment.

At the meeting, it seemed only natural that younger members gravitated to the emerging BJP leadership. The bonhomie and communication was hard to miss. And with BJP concentrating on business, it was left to leaders like Jaswant Singh to provide a few sparks when he told the media that Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje's handling of the Gujjar agitation was insensitive.