Opinion: BJP needed a decisive president, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the name, argued Vindhya Satta

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the country’s largest political party, was preparing to enter the next phase of its leadership. Behind its present form, ideological clarity, organisational strength and string of election victories, two figures had contributed most: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. But no leadership system was permanent; a time came when a new direction, a new face and a new strategy were needed.

As speculation grew inside and outside the party about who the next BJP national president would be, the question was not only of a name but of the shaping of future politics. If the organisation wanted to finish off the Congress in the remaining states and set its 2029 goal at that point, there was one name, the piece argued, that could not only accept this challenge but turn it into success: Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The script of Congress’s decline in Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj’s strategy

Madhya Pradesh, once considered a Congress stronghold, had left the Congress a party in name only. The credit for this, the article said, went to one person: Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

In 2003, when the BJP under Uma Bharti won 173 seats and ousted the Congress, it was still seen as a temporary setback for the Congress. But the campaign that uprooted the Congress not only from power but from the ground moved ahead under Shivraj’s leadership.

The circumstances of 2005 were difficult. Uma Bharti’s leadership was heading towards a split in the party, and Babulal Gaur’s interim government was no lasting solution. The central leadership understood the crisis, and Shivraj was remembered: a leader who, while an MP in Delhi, kept a sharp eye on state politics and maintained dialogue with every faction in the organisation.

Former Chief Minister Sundarlal Patwa wrote two historic articles in a newspaper whose lines BJP workers still remembered:

“Shiv hi sundar hai” and “Chuke mat Chauhan”.

This was not an emotional appeal but organisational grammar, the piece said, signalling the start of a new era.

Not politics but excellence in management: Shivraj

Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s greatest quality, the article said, was that he never made power the goal but put service and organisation first. Even before becoming Chief Minister, he contested the state president’s election knowing he would lose, because he wanted to show the organisation that he was in the field and fully prepared.

After becoming Chief Minister, the strategies he adopted were not only electoral but social and psychological:

Eliminating dacoits from Chambal,

Direct encounters against land mafias,

Reviving industries in Pithampur and Mandideep,

Rapid work on roads, education, power and health,

And most importantly, constant dialogue “among the people”.

He won the 2008 election, a trial by fire for him, with confidence. In 2013 he took the party again past 200 seats. When the BJP narrowly missed a majority in 2018, he did not give up leadership, and the party returned to power in 2020.

The 2023 and 2024 victories: Shivraj’s decisive leadership

In the 2023 assembly election, facing anti-incumbency and an organised Congress campaign machinery, the article said Shivraj showed such grassroots hold and organisational ability that the BJP returned to power with 160-plus seats.

Winning all 29 of 29 Lok Sabha seats in 2024 was not merely an electoral win but the pinnacle of political management, it said.

Shivraj did not coin slogans but shaped policy and management. His style had neither aggressive stridency nor a hunger to enjoy power in silence; he broke the opposition through dialogue, connected with people through development and alerted the organisation ahead of time.

National president: a commander for both organisation and elections

The BJP now needed a president who could lead the whole organisation, not just be a face:

One who understood the language of grassroots workers,

Who felt the political balance of the states,

And who could outwit the opposition’s psychological moves.

Modi was not going to become president, and Amit Shah had already moved from the organisation. The BJP needed a face who could guide the journey to 2029, and no one could play that role better than Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the article argued.

Shivraj ready to write the last chapter of a Congress-free India

Where Narendra Modi wiped out Congress politics in Gujarat, Shivraj, the article said, reduced the opposition to nothing in Madhya Pradesh. It was time, it argued, to give Shivraj that role at the national level.

If Shivraj Singh Chouhan became president, the piece claimed, the BJP’s victory march in the remaining Congress-held states, such as Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal and Telangana, would become unstoppable.

The BJP now needed a president who did not merely win elections but changed the political map. If the organisation decided so, India would soon witness a new political era.

“Shiv hi sundar hai”, but this time “Shiv is also the commander”.

The organisation now had to decide; the country was ready, the article concluded.