In a late evening development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced in-charges and co-in-charges of 15 states. The party has also announced prabharis for Telangana and West Bengal, where the party had recently appointed Sunil Bansal, the national general secretary, as a prabhari.
Tarun Chugh, the national general secretary, has been appointed as Telangana prabhari. Chugh is already in-charge of this southern state. Interestingly, recently, the party had also declared Sunil Bansal, who was general secretary organisation, Uttar Pradesh and now a national general secretary, as in-charge of three states, including Telangana, West Bengal and Odisha.
A senior party leader when asked about the reiteration of Chugh as Telangana in-charge said that after announcement of Bansal as in-charge many thought that Chugh would be given charge of some other state and removing him without giving that charge would not look nice as he has worked hard in the state.
With many wondering whether Chugh will be leading Telangana or not, the party has cleared its stand in the new list. Chugh has Arvind Menon as his co-incharge in the state.
A senior party leader clarified that Bansal will remain in-charge of the three states from ‘organisation strengthening’ point of view, as this is his forte. “He would be looking at these three states organisationally,” stated the source.
Similarly, West Bengal, a state that is also under Bansal, got its new prabhari in Mangal Pandey, MLC from Bihar, whereas IT incharge Amit Malviya and Asha Lakhra, Ranchi Mayor and party’s national secretary, are co-in-charges of Bengal.
EYE ON BIHAR, BJP SENDS TAWDE TO TAKE CHARGE
Vinod Tawde, who was the Haryana in-charge, has been given a challenging task to deliver Bihar to the party in the elections. With the BJP expanding the organisation after the split with ally JDU, Tawde has been sent to Bihar as its prabhari, whereas Harish Dwivedi, MP from UP, has been retained as Bihar’s co-in-charge.
Former Tripura CM Biplab kumar Deb has found a spot in the organisation as Haryana’s prabhari. “Deb has been proactive in Tripura and had to be accommodated and moving him to Haryana has ensured that he would have no time to indulge in Tripura’s politics,” stated a party leader.
Vinod Sonkar, who was in-charge of Tripura, has been made in-charge of Daman, Diu and Dadar Nagar haveli.
Former I and B minister Prakash Javadekar, too, has been given charge in the organisation. He has been made prabhari of Kerala, a state that has evaded the BJP. He will be assisted by his co-in-charge Radha Mohan Agarwal. Agarwal will be in-charge of Lakshadweep as well.
Om Mathur, who has been accommodated in the central election committee of the party recently, has been made prabhari of Chhattisgarh, whereas Nitin Nabin, MLA from Bihar, is co-in-charge of the party. Rajya Sabha MP Laxmikant Bajpai has been made Jharkhand in-charge.
Former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani will be looking after Punjab and Chandigarh. Gautam Buddha Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma has been given charge of Tripura. The party has retained MP and Rajasthan prabharis P Muralidhar Rao and Arun Singh, respectively. Rao will be assisted by Pankaja Munde and Ram Shankar Katheria, whereas Singh will have Vijaya Rahatkar as his co-in-charge.
The party has appointed Sambit Patra, national spokesperson, as coordinator for North-East states and RituRaj Sinha as joint coordinator.
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