Does Sanjay Joshi really pose a threat to Narendra Modi? On the face of it, the question seems absurd. After all, Joshi, who was an all-powerful Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary in the last decade, does not even hold an official position in the party. For the present BJP leadership, he is a closed chapter of history. Even the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – apparently under pressure from Modi – has desisted from making any overt efforts to rehabilitate him. For his part, Joshi has not been visible in the media or BJP offices for years.
Yet, the panic that the BJP brass showed early this week following Joshi's birthday celebrations in Delhi was so unusual that the question is suddenly being discussed in both the BJP and the RSS. The party has asked Union minister Shripad Naik’s private secretary Nitin Sardare, a committed party worker, to resign and has sought explanations from leaders who greeted Joshi on his birthday on April 6.
While Sardare was accused of putting up posters praising Joshi, BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri and Union ministers Sanjeev Balyan and Sarbanand Sonowal had wished Joshi on his birthday.
“The celebration on April 6 continued from morning till evening, and party leaders and workers kept visiting the whole day,” said a BJP leader, who was present at the party at Joshi’s North Avenue residence. “At least 5,000 people came to wish him, and most of them belonged to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana."
Committed worker
As an RSS pracharak in the late 1980s, Joshi had been sent from Maharashtra to Ahmedabad to join the BJP. For a few years, he shared a functioning equation with Modi. But Joshi soon fell in with BJP politician Keshubhai Patel. For almost a decade after that, he ruled Gujarat by proxy with Patel as chief minister, while leveraging his closeness with the RSS leadership in Nagpur to keep Modi out of the state for much of the 1990s.
In 2001, when Modi returned to Gandhinagar as chief minister, the RSS shifted Joshi to Delhi, giving him the critical position of BJP general secretary in charge of the organisation. But Joshi was forced to resign in 2005, following a controversy about a sleazy video allegedly featuring him. Though the video was later found to be fake, Joshi remained persona non grata until he was rehabilitated as chief coordinator for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2012 by Nitin Gadkari , the BJP president at the time.
The exercise proved short-lived as Modi, who was Gujarat chief minister at the time, refused to participate in the BJP’s national executive, which was being held later in Mumbai that year, unless Joshi was told to leave the venue and the city.
Since then, Joshi has remained in obscurity, holding no post either in the BJP or in the RSS. But party insiders admit that his popularity has soared among the BJP’s lower-level leaders and cadres in the Hindi belt over the past few months. He continues to enjoy an extremely good rapport with many RSS leaders and pracharaks across the country.
Feeling left out
“Because of the autocratic functioning of Amit Shah, a large number of party leaders and cadres are feeling left out,” said a BJP leader. “And this has revived party workers’ interest in Sanjay Joshi, whose doors are always open for them. Even without a position, he has started emerging as a parallel point of attraction for BJP cadres.”
Party insiders say the BJP brass has no idea how to deal with workers’ revived interest in Joshi, who is seen in the party as a man committed to organisation building. The RSS, which is watching the development rather keenly from a safe distance, is said to remain sympathetic to him. While he was BJP general secretary (organisation), Joshi had started working on a plan to attach one pracharak with the party unit in every district so that the RSS could exercise thorough control over its political outfit. He had even prepared a list of pracharaks who were to be given the district-level assignments. But the move was scuttled as he was forced to quit in 2005.
Establishing control over the BJP in the manner visualised by Sanjay Joshi still remains a dream project for the RSS. Though it is unlikely that the Sangh will change its attitude towards Joshi in the near future, the very fact that he maintains a live rapport with the lower rungs of the BJP in the Hindi belt and RSS pracharaks across the country is good enough to make the party brass uncomfortable. What is even more, for last few months Joshi has been constantly travelling and meeting grassroots leaders and workers of the party in UP, the state considered extremely crucial for the Sangh Parivar.
Party insiders feel that his influence may increase further if Amit Shah fails to pull off a miracle in the forthcoming Bihar elections. That would make it difficult for the BJP leader to stop the RSS from involving Joshi – either directly or indirectly – in preparations for the UP polls due in early 2017.
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Yet, the panic that the BJP brass showed early this week following Joshi's birthday celebrations in Delhi was so unusual that the question is suddenly being discussed in both the BJP and the RSS. The party has asked Union minister Shripad Naik’s private secretary Nitin Sardare, a committed party worker, to resign and has sought explanations from leaders who greeted Joshi on his birthday on April 6.
While Sardare was accused of putting up posters praising Joshi, BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri and Union ministers Sanjeev Balyan and Sarbanand Sonowal had wished Joshi on his birthday.
“The celebration on April 6 continued from morning till evening, and party leaders and workers kept visiting the whole day,” said a BJP leader, who was present at the party at Joshi’s North Avenue residence. “At least 5,000 people came to wish him, and most of them belonged to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana."
Committed worker
As an RSS pracharak in the late 1980s, Joshi had been sent from Maharashtra to Ahmedabad to join the BJP. For a few years, he shared a functioning equation with Modi. But Joshi soon fell in with BJP politician Keshubhai Patel. For almost a decade after that, he ruled Gujarat by proxy with Patel as chief minister, while leveraging his closeness with the RSS leadership in Nagpur to keep Modi out of the state for much of the 1990s.
In 2001, when Modi returned to Gandhinagar as chief minister, the RSS shifted Joshi to Delhi, giving him the critical position of BJP general secretary in charge of the organisation. But Joshi was forced to resign in 2005, following a controversy about a sleazy video allegedly featuring him. Though the video was later found to be fake, Joshi remained persona non grata until he was rehabilitated as chief coordinator for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2012 by Nitin Gadkari , the BJP president at the time.
The exercise proved short-lived as Modi, who was Gujarat chief minister at the time, refused to participate in the BJP’s national executive, which was being held later in Mumbai that year, unless Joshi was told to leave the venue and the city.
Since then, Joshi has remained in obscurity, holding no post either in the BJP or in the RSS. But party insiders admit that his popularity has soared among the BJP’s lower-level leaders and cadres in the Hindi belt over the past few months. He continues to enjoy an extremely good rapport with many RSS leaders and pracharaks across the country.
Feeling left out
“Because of the autocratic functioning of Amit Shah, a large number of party leaders and cadres are feeling left out,” said a BJP leader. “And this has revived party workers’ interest in Sanjay Joshi, whose doors are always open for them. Even without a position, he has started emerging as a parallel point of attraction for BJP cadres.”
Party insiders say the BJP brass has no idea how to deal with workers’ revived interest in Joshi, who is seen in the party as a man committed to organisation building. The RSS, which is watching the development rather keenly from a safe distance, is said to remain sympathetic to him. While he was BJP general secretary (organisation), Joshi had started working on a plan to attach one pracharak with the party unit in every district so that the RSS could exercise thorough control over its political outfit. He had even prepared a list of pracharaks who were to be given the district-level assignments. But the move was scuttled as he was forced to quit in 2005.
Establishing control over the BJP in the manner visualised by Sanjay Joshi still remains a dream project for the RSS. Though it is unlikely that the Sangh will change its attitude towards Joshi in the near future, the very fact that he maintains a live rapport with the lower rungs of the BJP in the Hindi belt and RSS pracharaks across the country is good enough to make the party brass uncomfortable. What is even more, for last few months Joshi has been constantly travelling and meeting grassroots leaders and workers of the party in UP, the state considered extremely crucial for the Sangh Parivar.
Party insiders feel that his influence may increase further if Amit Shah fails to pull off a miracle in the forthcoming Bihar elections. That would make it difficult for the BJP leader to stop the RSS from involving Joshi – either directly or indirectly – in preparations for the UP polls due in early 2017.