Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 29: With an eye on the coming Parliamentary elections and several key state Assembly elections later this year, the BJP president JP Nadda on Saturday reconstituted his national executive incorporating a Muslim and a Christian leader, both with strong academic background, in the team.
Inclusion of the former Aligarh Muslim University vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor as one of the vice-presidents is considered to be a major move to woo the Pasmanda Muslims while the party has also incorporated Anil Antony, the son of the veteran Congress leader AK Antony, who joined the BJP only recently, as one of the general secretaries of the party to send a message to the Christian voters.
In the operationally important section of the organisation — the list of general secretaries — there have been two notable deletions, that of Karnataka leader C.T. Ravi, and Lok Sabha member from Assam Dilip Saikia. It is being said Saikia’s deletion from the list has been compensated for by the appointment of Kamakhya Prasad Tasa as national secretary and the face of the vulnerable tea tribes there. Ravi’s exclusion is seen as a response to the BJP’s big defeat in Karnataka, including his own loss after being a four-term MLA.
Telangana MP and former State unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has been appointed as a general secretary, a consolation prize as he lost his presidentship of Telangana BJP to Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy just ahead of Assembly polls in the State.
An interesting addition to the list of general secretaries is Radha Mohan Agrawal, a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, one of the two new faces on the list from a total of nine general secretaries, seven of whom retain their position.
The list of national secretaries saw the most interesting additions and deletions, with Lok Sabha members Vinod Sonkar and Harish Dwivedi along with Sunil Deodhar being dropped. Sources say that Sonkar and Dwivedi, both MPs from Uttar Pradesh, have been asked to get active in their areas, although Dwivedi stock is said to be high in his handling of Bihar as national secretary as well as his constituency work. There is talk that Dwivedi could be in line for a ministership if and when a reshuffle of Union Council of Ministers is affected.
Among those appointed new secretaries besides Anil Antony were Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Singh Nagar and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa. Nagar is an influential Gurjar leader from western U.P. while Tasa has long been the face of tea tribes in the north-eastern State.
Tariq Mansoor was appointed one of the 13 vice presidents of the BJP. Along with Kerala leader Abdullah Kutty, he is the second member of the Muslim community appointed party vice-president.
Former Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, has been dropped from the post of party vice-president, in his place, former Uttar Pradesh BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Laxmikant Bajpai has been appointed.
Keeping in mind upcoming Assembly polls in Chattisgarh, former general secretary Saroj Pandey and former minister in the Chattisgarh government Lata Usendi, have been appointed vice presidents
There are 13 vice presidents, nine general secretaries, including B.L. Santhosh as the in-charge of the organisation, and 13 secretaries on the list. Former Chief Ministers Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje, and Raghubar Das are among the seasoned leaders retained as vice-presidents in the new list. Arun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Bansal, and Vinod Tawde also continue as general secretaries. Nadda’s tenure as BJP president was extended in January this year to allow him to be at the helm during the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP sources said Tariq Mansoor was instrumental in steering the AMU, one of the hotbeds of anti-NRC and CAA protests, on a “middle path”, and later closely working with the RSS on its project to promote the teachings of Mughal prince Dara Shikoh on peaceful Hindu-Muslim coexistence that was in contradiction to his brother Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s way of working. Mansoor was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, the fourth Muslim picked by the BJP for the post in the last few years.
Tariq Mansoor is from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims constitute roughly 19% of the state’s electorate, and have a sizeable presence in at least 30 Lok Sabha seats, out of which they play a major role in deciding the outcome in 15 to 20 constituencies.
According to an RSS functionary, Mansoor had impressed the Sangh’s leadership by his work on the Dara Shikoh project, by effectively using the AMU’s Persian department to translate much of Shikoh’s work on inter-faith dialogue and project him as an ideal for the Muslim community. He organised seminars and conferences on the same.
Mr Mansoor, a surgeon, has been associated with AMU since the 1970s when he completed his MBBS degree in surgery from the university’s JN Medical College and then Master of Surgery (MS) degree in 1982 from the same college. Apart from the BJP’s focus on the Pasmanda Muslims, which is important in terms of influence, the RSS has been specifically reaching out to Muslim academics, and people of the community from professions such as medicine, law, and bureaucracy, to make a difference in the minority discourse.
Jamal Siddiqui, head of the BJP’s Minority Morcha said Mansoor was a “nationalist Muslim” who has always promoted the ideal of “nation first.” “His understanding of the fault lines in the Muslim community is as deep as his knowledge about the country and its history. He has led the students of AMU on the right path and prevented them from being misled. His appointment will help the party to expand better.”