New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday met senior RSS leaders here to discuss the choice of the new BJP president and then met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, informed sources said.
Sources said some of those being considered to be the party’s new president include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretaries J.P. Nadda, Amit Shah, and P. Muralidhar Rao, and party leader Om Mathur.
Sources said that Nadda, a state unit leader of the BJP from Himachal Pradesh who entered national politics in 2010, is the front-runner for the post.
The meeting was held at RSS office in central Delhi and it was attended by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and other RSS leaders.
Since Rajnath Singh, the current BJP chief, has been inducted into the Narendra Modi cabinet as home minister, the party needs to elect a new president as the BJP strongly goes by the principle of “one man, one post”.
Soon after meeting RSS leaders, Rajnath Singh went to the Prime Minister’s Office and met Modi. The meeting lasted for 15 minutes.
Party sources said that the final declaration on the name of the new BJP chief is expected soon.
Nadda has played a key role in the party and had once been a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS’s student wing.
Amit Shah is a close aide of Modi and a section of BJP leaders acknowledges his contribution in ensuring a huge number of Lok Sabha seats for the party in the recently concluded general elections.
Muralidhar Rao, BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh, has served as the party’s national secretary and general secretary. He had survived an attempt on his life by Maoists in Osmania University campus in 1986.
Mathur is also a close aide of Modi and was in charge of the party affairs during the last Gujarat assembly elections.
