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edia mogul Surya Paloh is set to take over National Democrat Party’s (NasDem) top executive post later this month in a leadership succession many see as the seasoned politician’s attempt to keep his political clout within the party intact.

Surya will be named the party’s new chairman replacing Patrice Rio Capella during its national congress by the end of the month.

“It has been decided. The upcoming congress will merely serve as a formal inauguration for Surya,” the party’s incumbent deputy chairman, Sugeng Suparwoto, said.

Surya, the owner of the Media Group who cofounded the party and is currently its chief patron, left the Golkar Party after being defeated by Aburizal Bakrie in the 2011 race for the stalwart party’s leader.

NasDem — the only new party deemed eligible to join the 2014 elections — is said to be plagued by internal rifts after another media tycoon, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, decided to join it and purportedly began to cloud Surya’s influence.

Hary, listed by Forbes magazine as the country’s 29th richest man as of November last year, now chairs the party’s board of experts. As the CEO of the nation’s largest media group, Media Nusantara Citra (MNC), Hary managed to expose the NasDem party to the public through television advertisements.

With Hary and Surya onboard, the NasDem Party became the only party that could establish enough local offices across the country to be considered eligible to contest in the 2014 polls. In the draw that allocated numbers to the election participants for the ballot paper, the party got the number one spot.

However, as its popularity has grown, party members began to feel the heat of competition among the elites. Party chairman Rio said that he was aware of the rifts within the party but declined to confirm conjecture that it might have been triggered by the unspoken rivalry between the two media barons.

“When the time comes, I will explain everything,” he said.

Party secretary-general Ahmad Rofiq admitted that Surya and Hary were engaged in “disputes” but played down those incidents as “natural” and merely a sign of “political dynamism”. He claimed the party remained solid and was ready for the elections.

While Hary’s contribution to the party is significant, a political observer from Indo Barometer M. Qodari said Surya is far more recognizable to voters than Hary or Rio. Surya’s move to control the party’s executive board, he said, could strengthen the party.

“Since the beginning, the public has known that Surya is the most powerful figure in NasDem. Surya’s leadership may help the party gain more support as he is also much more popular,” he said.

Several analysts have touted NasDem as a dark horse in the upcoming elections and various pollsters have predicted the party would be major competition for the old political parties, especially the smaller ones. In a March 2012 survey by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), the party’s electability rate was 5.9 percent and was ranked fourth, after Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democratic Party.

The party said it was optimistic that it would gain 21 percent of the votes in the 2014 polls.

The huge financial resources coming form Surya and Hary, analysts said, would attract aspiring politicians and politicians from other political parties, including Golkar, to join the party.