Smriti Irani, Raje, Ram Madhav: BJP’s New Team Is About Damage Control

With PM Modi himself rolling out reels to connect with the Gen Z, Malviya’s days were known to have been numbered.

The BJP’s new team ticks the boxes of caste, gender, and region. But the verdict on the new team was given by a senior party functionary who said that “the composition shows that the upcoming Assembly elections are now top concerns of the party.”

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Nabin took almost eight months to unveil his team of national office-bearers, consisting of old and new faces, while betraying a sign that the saffron outfit is in the midst of a crisis.

After his appointment as BJP president in January this year—and riding a buzz after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him his “boss”—Nabin invites scrutiny on his decision-making speed, as well as the level of autonomy that he commands in the party.

Against the hype of a possible “Kamraj Plan” in the BJP, stoked by commentaries by saffron sympathisers, only Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal figured in the list with an accompanying buzz in the party that he will continue to hold his position in the Modi Cabinet as his task in the organisation merely involves “bookkeeping” as the treasurer. 

Two past discards —Ram Madhav and Smriti Irani—join Nabin’s team as political heavyweights. Madhav was a powerful BJP General Secretary in the initial few years of the Modi government before he lost favour and was sent back to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). From hogging limelight for the BJP’s key strategists for Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast, Madhav spent latter years in political oblivion.

Irani was dropped from the Modi Cabinet. She had held heavyweight portfolios of Human Resource Development and Information and Broadcasting, while losing fame gradually through her latter assignments in Ministries of Textile and Minority Affairs. She finds her political rehabilitation as the new BJP General Secretary.

Modi has chosen not to move senior Union ministers into organisational positions, making it clear that he does not want to disturb his team midway through his third term. This sets the backdrop for Nitin Nabin’s new team, which is tasked with addressing the BJP’s immediate political challenges rather than looking too far into the future.

Crisis Response Act One: Amit Malviya Exits

After helming the IT cell (social media) for almost one decade, Amit Malviya has been replaced by Chhattisgarh’s Deepak Mhaske. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah is known within the BJP to have spotted the electoral data crunching talent of Mhaske during the last Assembly elections in the state.

But the spotlight is not on the talent of the BJP's new social media head but on Malviya, whose digital toolkit is seen by some party leaders as having struggled to counter the rise of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP).

Malviya’s IT cell skillsets arguably involved in belittling the Opposition leaders, helming a large army of digital cheerleaders who attacked critics, and promoting reel culture within the party. 

The Prime Minister is learnt to have singled out abysmal footprints of the BJP MPs and leaders on Instagram in the aftermath of the Jantar Mantar protest led by the CJP. While Malviya ruled X and Facebook with a dedicated army of digital soldiers, his footprints on Instagram—the abode of the Gen Z—had been seen to be minimal. With Modi himself rolling out reels to connect with the Gen Z, Malviya’s days were known to have been numbered even though he exuded confidence in the party due to his proximity to Shah. 

Crisis Response Act Two: Buying Peace with Satraps 

Vasundhara Raje stays as the BJP Vice President of the party. Biplab Kumar Deb joins Nabin’s team as the BJP General Secretary. Tirath Singh Rawat comes as the BJP Vice President. The three bring their own sub-texts.

Rajasthan remains a state with bipolar politics. The roots of the Congress in the state are firm. A divided House risks the BJP losing Rajasthan in the next Assembly elections in 2028. Raje, known as ‘Maharani in Rajasthan’, has seen her political marginalisation despite commanding significant influence after the BJP top brass chose Bhajan Lal Sharma as the state Chief Minister.

By according respect to Raje by retaining her as the BJP Vice President, the party top brass seems showing hope that she will not play the spoiler in the next elections in the state. Satish Pooniya, a known confidante of Shah, takes the position of General Secretary in a signal that the BJP is counting Rajasthan as a state of political challenge. 

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat, famed for his remarks made in 2021 that girls wearing jeans set bad moral example, is another new General Secretary in the BJP. He was dropped as the state CM after a brief tenure. 

Uttarakhand on the lines of Rajasthan is another state known for bipolar politics. The Congress here is believed to have its organisation intact. Rawat is known within the BJP to be unimpressed with Pushkar Singh Dhami, the incumbent CM of Uttarakhand. By making Rawat the BJP National General Secretary, the saffron outfit hopes that he will not be a spoiler for the party in the 2027 Assembly elections in the state.

The recent tribal areas polls in Tripura made the BJP top brass that the party is mired in deep faction-fighting. A detailed report was submitted to the top BJP brass a few months ago. Deb, former Chief Minister of Tripura, is now the BJP National General Secretary.

In Tripura state politics, Deb holds command of one faction of the BJP. By taking him firmly out of the state politics, the BJP will hope peace to prevail in the Tripura unit of the party. Tripura goes to polls in 2028.

BJP’s Poll Backbone Stays

In his 64-member team, Nabin retains the BJP’s key election soldiers—BL Santhosh, General Secretary (Organisation), and his two deputies, Sriprakash and Saudan Singh, along with powerful General Secretaries Sunil Bansal and Vinod Tawde.

The team of poll strategists has been given further weight by drafting the new national secretaries with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) turncoat Sandeep Pathak (Punjab), Pradeep Verma (Jharkhand), Rohan Gupta (Gujarat), Sidharth Sambhu (Bihar), and a few more. 

The BJP’s new team ticks the boxes of caste, gender, and region. But the verdict on the new team was given by a senior party functionary who said that “the composition shows that the upcoming Assembly elections are now top concerns of the party.”

The 2027 is setting out for a semi-final ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, and the Gen Z protests have seemingly brought a crisis response from the top brass of the BJP through Nitin Nabin Team.

(The author is a senior Delhi-based journalist, with over two decades spent in tracing the BJP and Indian politics. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint does not endorse or is responsible for them.)