Home minister Amit Shah held a series of meetings on Wednesday to finalise the name of the BJP working president following a prod from the RSS, insiders said.

The BJP is scheduled to hold an organisational meeting over the weekend where formal approval on a working president could be secured, sources said. Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J.P. Nadda, the meeting will be attended by the party’s state presidents, in-charges and national office-bearers.

The rush to appoint a working president is believed to be the result of a push by the RSS, which has adopted a more interventional role after the BJP’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

Nadda’s extended tenure had expired in June but Modi and Shah were keen on letting him continue till a new president got elected after the organisational elections in January.

The RSS leadership, however, was against this arrangement and wanted a working president to be put in charge ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.

“Naddaji has now taken charge as the health minister and doesn’t have time to devote to organisational affairs,” an RSS leader said.

Many in the BJP, however, believe that the reason behind the RSS nudge could be linked to an interview of Nadda during the Lok Sabha polls where he said the BJP had turned “saksham” (capable) and was no more dependent on the RSS cadres.

The annual coordination meeting between the RSS and the BJP is scheduled at the end of this month in Kerala’s Palakkad. The RSS leadership did not want Nadda to represent the BJP at the crucial meeting, insiders said.

An RSS leader, however, denied this and said their “suggestion” to the BJP to appoint a working president was out of organisational requirements and not personal reasons.

“Naddaji too had been appointed as working president (in 2019) before being elected full-time party chief. There is nothing extraordinary in our suggestion,” an RSS leader said.

On Monday, a meeting between key BJP and RSS leaders was held at defence minister Rajnath Singh’s residence to discuss the name of the new party president and strategise for the state elections. The meeting indicated how the BJP had been compelled to turn towards the RSS after the Lok Sabha results. The new political reality has also opened space for the RSS to get a leader of their choice as the BJP president.

Insiders said the RSS leadership also wanted the working president to take over as the new BJP chief. This has mounted pressure on Modi and Shah who are keen to buy time to get someone loyal to them as the party head.