The Tamil Nadu BJP’s wait for a new president continues, as contrary to the expectation in party circles, no announcement regarding the post was made on Friday.
BJP sources had said on Thursday that the name of the president-appointee would be announced at a press conference addressed by Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Sidharth Nath Singh in Chennai on Friday.
However, on Friday, Mr. Singh said the new president of the party’s State unit will be appointed “very soon”. “Our Central Parliamentary Party will meet… and with the new [national] president (J.P. Nadda) coming in next week and taking over, a formal announcement will be made,” he said.
“Till this [Friday] morning, we were under the impression that they will announce the [name of the] appointee. We are disappointed,” a state leader said.
The party will now wait for Mr. Nadda to take charge and then seek to evolve a consensus on who will steer the State unit.
On JNU violence
On the violence unleashed on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus and the calls from certain quarters for shutting down the university, Mr Singh said, “I don’t think any senior leader in the BJP has spoken like this. But on anything, everyone has a view; articles are written about [the topic]. The government is of the opinion that JNU is a premier organisation which has given many stalwarts to the country, and the ethos will have to be maintained, and I’m sure the government is committed to it.”
The Uttar Pradesh Minister said the government had not taken steps to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC). “The BJP as a government has never spoken about the NRC or [said] we are going to implement it,” he said.
When it was pointed out to him that Home Minister Amit Shah had said the NRC will be implemented and that was the official position of the government, he said, “The Prime Minister has made it clear. Whenever it will come, it will be in discussion (sic) with everybody and will be discussed in Parliament.”
“Amit Shah ji has never spoken about the NRC at length in Parliament. He has spoken about the CAA.
When Mr. Chidambaram was the Home Minister, he too had spoken about the NRC. But they never implemented [it]. It has to go through a process,” Mr. Singh said.
