Tracking the rise: From ABVP activists to CMs, BJP's picks have come far
Selected for the top job in Rajasthan on Tuesday, Bhajan Lal Sharma served in the Bharatpur unit of the ABVP from 1990 to 1996
On Friday, speaking at the national conference of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student’s wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah described himself as an “organic product of ABVP” much to the audience’s delight.
The new chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, both surprise choices, announced on December 11 and 12 respectively, Mohan Yadav and Bhajan Lal Sharma can, if they so desire, also describe themselves thus. The key appointments only highlight what has been acknowledged for some time in Delhi’s power circles -- the ABVP is becoming a recurring theme in the generational transformation in the BJP.
In some ways, this continues a trend that started some time back.
Read Here: Who is Bhajan Lal Sharma, BJP's pick for Rajasthan chief minister?
Shah’s successor as party president JP Nadda was an ABVP national secretary while key strategist and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan was national secretary. Incidentally, both their spouses are also former office-bearers of ABVP.
The Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal was in the Mumbai unit of the ABVP while the Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Shekhawat was the state secretary of the ABVP in Rajasthan. Earth sciences minister Kiren Rijiju was talent spotted during one of ABVP’s North-East campaign.
Selected for the top job in Rajasthan on Tuesday, Bhajan Lal Sharma served in the Bharatpur unit of the ABVP from 1990 to 1996. Commenting on the role the organisation played in his development, Sharma posted earlier this week: “The ABVP experience and ideals have helped nurture millions of workers like me.”
Established in 1949, the students’ body had more patriotic objectives rather than how to achieve electoral success. Even during the first NDA government, there were prominent ABVP school recruits such as Pramod Mahajan, Gopinath Munde and Ananth Kumar, although not as many as there are now.
To be sure, student organisations were a small source of talent spotting even for the Congress party. Randeep Singh Surjewala, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot are just some of the top leaders who trace their origin to the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
But the ABVP promotes talent aggressively, one of its leaders said.”I come from a Jharkhand village that saw the first road being built by Prime Minister AB Vajpayee in 2002,’’ said ABVP’s general secretary Yagyavalkya Shukla. “You can make out from my journey from that village to being an office bearer, what kind of organisation ABVP is.’’
It’s something that even the NSUI acknowledges. Its national secretary Lokesh Chugh said: “The reason why we see so many chief ministers from ABVP is clear. They have people who have dedicated their student life to do this work, for many years. Even we have people like that.’’ But the fortnight that was also saw the success of a third man who started his political life in the ABVP -- the Congress’s Revanth Reddy, named chief minister of Telangana last week, was a member of ABVP in his college days.
