What BJP's 2024 list can teach us about chasing success

It’s general election season again. And BJP is first past the post in announcing its first list of 195 candidates. What is striking in the list are the new candidates. Several sitting MPs, many of them high-profile, have made way for fresh faces. Delhi chalo | Candidates have been announced for five of the seven seats. In four, all incumbent MPs have been replaced with fresh names. What’s more, some of those replaced have gracefully thanked the party on social media. * Many other sitting MPs have been dropped all over the country. We don’t really know the inner party dynamics that led to specific individual decisions. However, one thing is clear. BJP is good at something that is probably also its most underrated quality – managing organisational churn and attrition. Value loyalty, embrace newness | Any organisation – be it a political party or a corporate or any other institution – thrives only by striking a balance between two opposing qualities: Loyalty and churn. Loyalty means the organisation must be able to retain talent. Churn means the organisation must be able to replace talent with better talent. * It is hard to strike this balance. Even the biggest companies in the world struggle to get this right. However, BJP has time and again managed to reinvent itself despite being a gigantic organisation.Remember 1984, 2004, 2009 | Perhaps the lowest point for BJP was in the 1984 general elections, when it won just two Lok Sabha seats. Funnily enough, nobody said opposition-mukt-Bharat then as much as the term is used now. Afterwards, the party continued to claw back under the leadership of LK Advani, AB Vajpayee and other leaders. Until it became a national force again and formed govt. But somehow the party could not retain a firm hold on this govt.* The election losses of 2004 and 2009 meant the party had to go through yet another transformation if it wanted to get back to govt. It had to replace the leadership, even those who had resurrected BJP in the first place.In defeat and in victory | BJP then achieved something extremely difficult: A relatively conflict-free passing on of leadership to a new set of leaders like Modi and Shah. Of course, what happened to the party’s performance after that made history.* Although that big change was difficult, it was accomplished at a time when the party was without power. What is much harder is what BJP is doing these days, which is to keep churning its stock even when the party is on a strong wicket. This is an incredible ability. To continuously keep adapting, not take things for granted, and make key talent changes – even in good times.* People come. People stay. People are also replaced. Are all replacements fair, perfect and timely? Perhaps not, as nobody is perfect. However, the BJP does it much better than others. Predicted to win in every possible opinion poll, it could act smug, retain the winning candidates, and maintain the status quo. But it realises that no matter how good things are now, nothing in life is permanent. Nothing great stays great unless one does the hard work to keep it all going well.Stasis hurts | Contrast that to Congress, which has had any number of signals that big changes are needed. The first one was its 2014 defeat, which alone should have led to major introspection. Then it was the 2019 defeat, an even worse performance. There had never been a clearer sign from the Indian people. Indian voters were telling Congress in screaming bold letters on hundred-foot hoardings around the country: Please change.* Congress did take some token actions. But did not deliver the biggest change the public wanted (it’s no mystery). Many old-time Congress defenders argue that Congress has won many times. It still has many takers, so why change? The same could also be said of the sitting BJP MPs who have been dropped, but they have been dropped anyway. Meanwhile, Congress remains hidebound and here we are near the 2024 election, and I think we can guess what will happen next. * Even at the state level, Congress has been given screaming loud signals to change. After its 2018 MP and Rajasthan wins, there was a clamour to make Jyotiraditya and Pilot the CMs. It would have meant a generational change. Congress failed to take this opportunity to project two young faces at the national level. We all know the consequences. This time around Congress has lost both states. Along with a lot of morale and momentum for the Lok Sabha elections.It hurts Congress, it hurts you | There’s a lesson in this for all of us. Nothing changes if nothing changes. If we do nothing to change our situation, our lives will never change. Actually, it may get worse. * BJP, a party that seems invincible, is meticulously culling and curating its Lok Sabha ticket lists. It also does this for every election. It does this for sitting CMs. It does this for whatever part is not working optimally. It changes something. And often, the change, while painful, is what leads to better results. * Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes. And BJP, despite being the largest political party in the world, has this underrated quality of being able to churn talent and change better than many others.