RSS always deputed a trusted pracharak as 'political commissar' who functioned as an office-bearer of the BJP and had played a domineering role throughout the pre-Advani days. Now Gadkari combines both the roles, and this gives him overawing command.

The new president comes with two other advantages. Fresh in Delhi, he is free from its embedded factional trappings. The other is his intended role as a serious organizational man with a mission ordained by Nagpur. Hence Gadkari has formally declined the offer of a Rajya Sabha ticket. We still do not know whether this is part of Mohan Bhagwat's brief. Either way, Gadkari says he wanted to prove that a BJP chief can be effective without an MP tag. Such abnegation has been rather unusual in BJP. By contrast, a year after taking charge as BJP president, Murli Manohar Joshi had became a Rajya Sabha member purportedly to widen the party chief's reach.

Now parivar ideologue M.G. Vaidya advises Gadkari to be a 'Prakash Karat', who, he says, knows more about the intricate government policies than even most MPs. The point is that like Karat, Gadkari can also enhance his moral authority by keeping off the perks and privileges that goes with it. If to work in Delhi's faction-ridden milieu without trusted wiz kids and own operators is a real challenge for Gadkari, to lead and guide a party sitting away from parliamentary spotlight will be a bigger one. In an ideologically solid CPI(M) with a sound consensus on government policies, a 'perkless' organisational chief can shape the party's parliamentary face with relative ease.

As against this, the BJP never had a consistent economic or foreign policy. Instead, it frequently shifted positions to suit the emerging exigencies and political requirements. During Joshi's tenure (in 1992), after strenuous efforts, an elaborate 'Gandhinagar document' acceptable to the entire parivar was produced. But later Advani had unceremoniously dumped it to make the party more corporate and foreign-friendly. Such vacillation continues even today. After the party officially took a firm position to oppose the India-US nuclear deal, Advani had on record tried to reverse it at least thrice. But the RSS had snubbed him. May be this is the worst case. Yet even today, the party does not have an official view on the Bt. brinjal controversy. Some of its prominent parliamentary bosses want to side with the foreign agri business. The BJP is also sharply divided on supporting the nuclear liability bill. Faced with such dilemma, its spokesmen talk more about peripheral issues like Shashi Tharoor's pranks.

And here is a budget that contains a Pandora's box of controversial proposals on which the BJP does not have a clear position. So far it had simply tried to camouflage its own confusion by targeting the petroleum price hike and the blanket excise duty raise. The private oil lobby has intensified pressures on its leaders to support scrapping the administrative price control (APC). As on Bt brinjal and free hand to raise petro prices, sections of the Gen-X are under pressure from the old lobbyist friends to support the UPA's already curtailed 'food security bill' and 'nutrient-based subsidy scheme' (NBS). There are also sharp differences within BJP on the centre's policy of withdrawing the benefits of BPL coverage by statistically reducing the number of the poor. All this is intended to reduce subsidy to the farmers and poor. This explains the BJP's eerie silence on general budget.

We still do not know how much Gadkari himself is vulnerable to the lobby push. So far, on one issue - on futures trading - he has changed the discourse. Jaitley now says that the NDA government had allowed it only on a trial basis when food was plenty. Gadkari will now have to effect many such policy shifts to reconcile the continuing corporate pressures, feelings within the parivar and compulsions of his own Antyodaya-Dalit kind of pronouncements to gain the targeted extra 10 per cent vote for the party.

Gadkari's aides who came with him to Delhi see several favourable factors for such a smooth reconciliation. First, now that the BJP has little hope of an early power regain, it is not obliged to be too reasonable to the biz and foreign lobbies. Second, renewed Swadeshi influence from aides like Murlidhar Rao as well as parivar elements. Third, the post-meltdown rethinking the world over on excessive liberalization can be an alibi for the game changers in BJP. Four, the need to compete and cope with local rivals on giving a better pro-poor image and expose Congress' aam aadmi plank.

Already, questions are being asked about Gadkari's ability to fabricate a consensus on such thorny issues. During the Advani era, the backroom boys and momentary expediencies decided things, much to the exclusion of stalwarts like Murli Manohar Joshi. Will Gadkari allow the parliamentary wing under the Gen-X to take such crucial decisions as and when they arise in the House? Will he, as party head, call the shots? Or, will he make it obligatory on the part of parliamentary managers to get the party's prior nod on vital issues? Karat's MPs have a consistent referring point. Their own politburo members are leading the charge. One proposal in BJP is for a special brainstorming session to chart out a clear policy matrix which the entire parivar will be committed to follow. Once the fundamentals are agreed to, fine-tuning during emerging situations will be easier. Apparently, such a policy paradigm will take time to emerge.

As for Gadkari, even before choosing his team he seems to have achieved much of the basic tasks assigned to him by the RSS. He has established his authority in the party with relative ease, and the backroom boys and old hangers-on remain disbanded. All this, of course, under the big brother's watch. He established, at least as of now, a harmonious relationship with the Delhi-entrenched Gen-X like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, once contenders for the post. Advani himself has showered encomium on the new chief for his amiable manners. But his biggest challenge is evolving a consensual policy framework and ensuring its smooth implementation. (IPA Service)