By Arun Srivastava
Notwithstanding Narendra Modi having complete control over the political and administrative structure of the BJP, he is finding it tough to face Gen-Z challenges and counter the estrangement with this volatile force. Ever since Modi became the prime minister in 2014, he deliberately ignored this potential power pack on the presumption that his politics of stoking hatred and polarisation would defuse this dynamo. During his 12-year-rule so far, he has simply made them listen to his “mann ki baat”. Party apparatus was used to force the students listen to his sermons, which has ironically created a generation immune to Modi’s rhetoric.
It was the Cockroach Janata Party-led month-long agitation that brought Modi to his sense and forced him to recognise the ground realities, and the gigantic disconnect with the youth. Subsequently, the BJP at his directive launched the herculean task of restructuring itself to make it more Gen Z friendly. Unfortunately for Modi, the forces opposed to him inside the party proved to be a hindrance. The restructuring nevertheless sent a clear and loud message that Modi was not the sole face of the party.
But the organisational restructuring of the BJP has not yielded desired results as expected. The overall outcome remains highly debated given the party’s mixed performance. Modi’s close associates and protégé continue to have a major presence in the restructured apparatus. Since youths haven’t got decisive representation, and participation of cadres owing allegiance to RSS was considerably slashed, the old horses continue to dictate the decision-making process.
While Nitin Nabin officially took charge as the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on January 20, 2026, the dynamics of the restructuring didn’t have much clarity. Though it had become imperative in the backdrop of the running feud between Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. During the restructuring, party president Nabin dropped several established leaders and introduced many new faces to appeal to a younger electorate and rectify communication gaps. Yet, the younger leaders were not assigned the responsibility or brought into the decision-making system of the party, though the BJP is not tired of claiming that it has given huge representation to young faces.
Modi has never been comfortable with young leaders and new ideas. The BJP administration operates under a highly centralised, top-down structure that leaves little room for outside or unconventional ideas. Modi is uncomfortable dealing with critics and those raising uncomfortable questions are often marginalised. If he had been open to new ideas, he would have turned Mann Ki Baat a two-way deliberation.
Modi’s reluctance to listen to the youth’s voice and interact with young faces has amplified youth unrest, helped intensify the CJP agitation over exam leaks and demands for reforming the education system. Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi have gone as far as to label Modi administration “anti-youth”, claiming that the government’s response to youth agitation demonstrates an inability to tolerate the genuine anxieties and fresh perspectives of the Gen Z.
There is no denying that a highly centralised management style from top leadership continues to demotivate youths, disempower local MLAs and booth-level activists, neutralising the intended benefits of appointing fresh leadership faces. The claim of some BJP leaders that massive victory in the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections owes to restructuring is evidently a false narrative, meant to hide the machinations of the ECI to rig the election via the SIR-driven mass exclusions.
The latest rejig in the form of the September 2026 appointment of dozens of state joint general secretaries, is an ongoing long-term consolidation process designed to build a “Team 2029” to ensure victory of BJP at the Lok Sabha elections, so that Modi comes to power for the fourth successive time. This is the mechanism devised by Modi and Amit Shah to counter the rising anti-incumbency and blunt the frustration among the voters.
BJP’s massive organisational restructuring is heavily motivated by a need to counter a perceived disconnect with Gen Z and younger voters. The Gujarati duo is panicked about Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatron Ki Goonj (CKG) campaign, which represents a strategic, issue-based attempt to challenge Modi’s political dominance. An analytical evaluation reveals that this initiative poses a structured, thematic challenge to the Modi by weaponising the grievances of India’s large youth demographic.
While Modi never desired to connect with the youth, the CKG impacts Modi’s brand of politics and attempts to decouple the youth from Modi’s narrative. There is no denying that a major pillar of Modi’s electoral dominance has been his erstwhile support among first-time voters and the under-35 demographic, who viewed him as a symbol of aspiration and national progress. The CKG attempts to break this bond by shifting the narrative from nationalist pride to concrete structural failures.
In this backdrop, it was expected that Modi by promoting the youth faces through his organisational restructuring would divert Rahul Gandhi’s focus on a “System vs. Students” critique, which portrays the Modi administration not as an efficient engine of growth, but as an exclusionary elite structure controlled by a handful of decision-makers and corporatized interests, which ignores the questions of ordinary youth.
Ironically though, the Modi administration recognises that a unified student front is a potent political risk, the restructuring does not enthuse much. Modi has explicitly sought to discredit the movement, labeling it Jooth Ki Goonj, but that did not work. The reason was; the lack of youth face which could stand to the face of Rahul. CKG is a potent threat to Modi’s politics because it targets his most vital demographic base with real-world economic grievances. Since the major organisational overhaul followed massive student protests led by Gen Z under banners like the CJP, it was expected that the young faces would undertake the role of ideological preachers. BJP behaved in an ostrich-like manner and rebranded “Gen Z” to “Yuva”, with the claimed mission to capture a broader spectrum of young voters.
Modi in his pursuit of full control on the saffron ecosystem, slashed the RSS representation in the organisation. State units which earlier had RSS leaders as full-term General Secretaries (Organisation), a crucial structural post traditionally filled by an RSS pracharak, are now manned by non-RSS cadres. A significant portion of newly appointed national office-bearers have no direct prior links to the RSS or ABVP. One out of two national office-bearers of the BJP, 46 percent to be precise, have no links with RSS. Only 54 percent of Nabin’s new team have been previously associated with the RSS. During Amit Shah’s term as the party president (2014-2019), around 78.7 percent of the members in top posts were associated with RSS, or ABVP. It came down to 49 per cent during J P Nadda’s terms.
Nabin retained B.L. Santhosh, a former RSS member, as National General Secretary (Org). But of late, he is identified as close associate of Amit Shah. Of the 16 secretaries, only six are associated with RSS or ABVP. Is the BJP under Modi on the path of a change in basic character?
The appointments come at a crucial point in the BJP’s political calendar, with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Manipur, due for Assembly elections in 2027. The new organisational line-up, therefore, gives the party’s state units a fresh structure to work with well ahead of the electoral cycle. Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state with 80 Lok Sabha seats, has been given one of the most elaborate organisational structures in the new arrangement. The decision to place a senior national general secretary at the helm underlines the scale of the organisational responsibility assigned to the state.
Tawde, a national general secretary with extensive organisational experience, was already appointed the Uttar Pradesh in-charge in August. His continuation in the role, now with a wider team, comes well ahead of the 2027 Assembly election and gives the BJP considerable time to work on its organisational preparations in the state. The major motive behind restructuring is to build a modernized electoral machine that can refresh the party’s narrative, recover ground after recent public protests, and layout a concrete roadmap for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and upcoming critical state assembly polls.
Modi intends to dispel the impression of domination of old tried hands which creates a feel of stagnant society which is unable to reach out to the next generation. Out of the 65-member national team, while 24 per cent are under 35 years, those between 35 to 45 years constitute 45 per cent of the leadership (up from 14 percent). (IPA Service)
