Why BJP has to take some hard decisions

The Bharatiya Janata Party finds itself at the cross-roads after the Lok Sabha poll debacle and it will have to take some hard decisions about its leadership and its policies. The election setback is likely to put an end to the prime ministerial ambitions of 81-year-old L K Advani who was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for the past five years.

The party will have to decide whether Advani should continue in that position or whether they will have a new face. With Atal Behari Vajpayee having faded from public life and with the sun setting over Advani's long career, the BJP will have to grapple with the task of finding a leader who will succeed these political giants -- a task that is not going to be easy.

Rajnath Singh will continue to be the party president, at least till the end of his tenure in December, but there are questions about his leadership abilities. In the current adverse circumstances, he may get another tenure, unless the party decides to go for a total overhaul.

The generation next in the party includes high-profile general secretary Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and controversial Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Jaitley, regarded as a man with the golden touch, has failed as the chief strategist in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. His detractors in the party point out that he has never fought an election himself.

Modi, touted as the party's prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha polls, carries the baggage of the 2002 communal riots, in which his role is being investigated on the orders of the Supreme Court.

He has done very well for himself in Gujarat but some BJP allies are not willing to be associated with him. In fact, some within the BJP itself think that it was a costly mistake to talk about Modi as the PM candidate in 2014, in the middle of the current election campaign. 

Sushma Swaraj does not have a wide appeal and is not seen as a charismatic leader who can lead the BJP to power. Two BJP chief ministers, Shivraj Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh and B S Yeddyurappa of Karnataka, who have brought considerable success to the party in these states, are regarded as potential future leaders at the national level.

As for the policies, BJP will have to take a call whether to follow the Hindutva agenda or go for a strategy that will have a wider appeal. There are no easy answers but how the party decides on these issues will have a great impact on its future.