50 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
POLITICS
KARNATAKAO
n May 23, when the BJP was cruising to a
commanding victory in the Lok Sabha elec-
tions, B.L. Santhosh, who was then national
joint general secretary (organisation) of the
party, shared a word of caution. “Our journey is not
complete without victory in Kerala & Tamil Nadu,”
he tweeted, rightly capturing the BJP’s southern
dilemma. Santhosh, an RSS pracharak deputed to
the BJP since 2006, has now been appointed national
general secretary (organisation), the second most
powerful post in the BJP. He replaces Ram Lal, the
longest-serving organisational general secretary, who
has returned to the RSS.
Santhosh began his career as a design engineer in
a telecommunications firm before joining the RSS in
1993 as a full-timer. Hailing from Hiriadka in Karnata-
ka’s Udupi district, he worked extensively in Mysuru
and Shivamogga before being appointed as the BJP’s
state organisational secretary in 2006. In 2014, he was
inducted into Ram Lal’s team as one of the five joint
general secretaries. Santhosh’s colleagues describe
him as “sharp, studious and social media savvy”, with
strong views on issues ranging from internal security
to environment. Fluent in English, Hindi, Kannada,
Tamil and Tulu, he has played a key role behind the
BJP’s forays into south India. “Santhoshji is a key or-
ganisational man who has worked in Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana and Goa. The move will pay rich
dividends for the party in the southern region,” said
senior BJP leader S. Suresh Kumar.
It was Santhosh who held the BJP together in Kar-
nataka after splinter parties like the Karnataka Janata
Paksha of B.S. Yeddyurappa and the BSR Congress
of B. Sriramulu threatened to destroy the BJP aheadof the 2013 assembly elections. The
“missed-call” membership drive in
Karnataka registered nearly one crore
new members in 2014-15, a feat that
helped the party dramatically expand
its base.
The cold war between Karnataka BJP
president Yeddyurappa and Santhosh
is no longer a secret. It started in 2011,
when Yeddyurappa was forced to step
down as chief minister after his name
figured in the Lokayukta report on
illegal mining. In 2017, when senior
BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa launched
the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade to con-
solidate the backward classes, Yed-
dyurappa suspected that the move was
orchestrated by Santhosh to undercut
his influence. The rumours about
Santhosh being considered for the
chief minister’s post during last year’s
assembly elections had added to the
problem.
Santhosh’s new appointment comes
at a crucial juncture as the BJP is not
only eyeing its expansion in the south,
but also trying to balance electoral
compulsions with ideological com-
mitment. “The senior leadership in the
BJP came from the JP movement and
Emergency. Today, there is an urgent
need to groom young leaders,” said a
senior RSS functionary. “Santhosh’s
organisational skills have immensely
helped the BJP expand its member-
ship. His focus on strengthening
the different morchas and engaging
diverse civil society groups and profes-
sional cells is worth emulating.”
With Santhosh’s appointment, the
RSS is taking forward a tradition estab-
lished by the second sarsanghchalak,
M.S. Golwalkar. “Syama Prasad Muk-
herjee (founder of the Bharatiya Jana
Sangh) and his team once approached
Guruji (Golwalkar) to form a political
party. Guruji declined, but offered to
assist in building the party. Five peo-
ple—Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani,
Deendayal Upadhyaya, Sunder Singh
Bhandari and Balraj Madhok were
deputed to work for the Jana Sangh,”
said an RSS ideologue.Mission mode
Balancing electoral compulsions with ideology
and expansion in the south are the priorities
for B.L. Santhosh, the new organisational
general secretary of the BJP