RSS uses regional diversity argument to oppose Shah as BJP president

"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh plans to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attempts to get his close aide, Amit Shah, appointed as the Bharatiya Janata Party's next president, by arguing that it is against leaders from the same state holding the party's top two posts. Both Modi and Shah are from Gujarat. The RSS claims to be just a cultural organisation affiliated with the ruling BJP, but it is no secret that the Hindutva group calls the shots on important appointments in the party. Now a general secretary in the party, Shah has been credited with the party's stunning performance in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, where it won 71 out of 80 seats, almost double the incumbent Congress's all-India tally of 44... Last week, a senior union minister who is known to have a good rapport with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also met top leaders of Hindu organisation and tried to explain to them why Amit Shah would be the best choice for the post of party president, the RSS leader said. But the RSS turned away the minister without giving him any assurances, he added. The RSS fears a repeat of what happened in the late 1990s, when, under similar circumstances, both the BJP and the government slipped out of its hand..."