BJP working president Jagat Prasad Nadda on Saturday figured prominently on the backdrop billboard at the two-day workshop for party MPs in a significant entry by the low-profile leader considering the dynamics of the current regime, widely seen as a Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly.
Nadda’s picture on the billboard appears on one side of the frame beside Shah, who is the party’s president and also the Union home minister.
A picture of Prime Minister Modi dominates the other side of the frame.
Till now, only pictures of Modi and Shah have dominated party posters.
Party leaders said it was normal for pictures of the Prime Minister and the party president to figure in posters. “Amit Shah is the president and Naddaji is the working president of the party. So their pictures are there,” a BJP MP said.
Shah had made it to party posters, occupying equal space as the Prime Minister, following his elevation as BJP chief in 2014 after the formation of the Modi government.
In the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, a large order for billboards had been cancelled just before delivery as they had very small pictures of Shah.
The billboards were redone with pictures of Modi and Shah of equal size on the two sides of the frame and small pictures of other leaders at the bottom.
Since then Shah has emerged as a leader second only to Modi and in many ways almost equal to him. In the BJP’s second stint in power, he is being seen as Modi’s “natural successor” as home minister.
More than the entry of Nadda in the billboard, some BJP leaders were curious if the low-profile leader would eventually replace Shah as a full-fledged party president.
Nadda is likely to be elected the party chief, replacing Shah, when organisational polls are held by the end of this year.
Nadda has chosen to remain in Shah’s shadow since his selection as working president in June this year. Most party leaders believe that Nadda, known to be an organisational man and close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, would continue to function under Shah even if he is elevated as the party boss.
