As per the reports Amit Shah has called a party meeting on Thursday to decide whether the BJP will have a new president before the next round of assembly polls in the coming months or the change of guard will happen in January 2020 when Shah's three-year term comes to an end.

After Shah was nominated to the Union cabinet, it is widely expected that the BJP will have a new president. Similar procedure was followed in 2014 when Rajnath Singh demitted office as BJP chief after being made home minister in the Modi government.

The two options before the BJP at present are to either appoint a new party chief through a motion in the central parliamentary board, which is the 11-member higher decision making body of the party. The decision has to be later ratified by the nation council. The interim president chosen through this process remains in charge till the party chief is formally elected through the normal process due in January 2020.

The other option is to continue with the current team till January next year so that the established mechanism may oversee assembly polls in Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.

The organisational election process in the BJP starts later this year and culminates with the election of National President in January 2020. The amended BJP constitution stipulates for two full three-year term for the post of the party president.