NEW DELHI, Sept 9: Focussing on the coming elections to various state Assemblies culminating in the 2024 Parliamentary elections, the BJP on Friday marked assignments to some of its leaders to take charge of the respective states rehabilitating some of them dumped earlier.
Among the leaders rehabilitated with new party roles are the former chief ministers of Gujarat Vijay Rupani and Tripura Biplab Deb, besides the former union minister Prakash Javadekar and Mahesh Sharma who were removed from their posts earlier.
Vijay Rupani will be in charge of Punjab and Biplab Deb will take charge of Haryana. Prakash Javadekar gets Kerala while Mahesh Sharma will look after Tripura. Bihar will be the responsibility of party general secretary Vinod Tawde, who was earlier in charge of Haryana. Laxmikant Vajpayee will take charge of Jharkhand.
Another leader who has snagged an important assignment is former Bihar minister Mangal Pandey who has been given charge of West Bengal where the party is aggressively pursuing votes and seats. He will work with Sunil Bansal, who also has been given charge of Bengal, besides Odisha and Telangana.
Most of these leaders held no party post but they had been in charge of elections before. Sources say the idea is that they will not be weighed down by party positions as they focus completely on expanding the BJP’s base and winning elections in specific states.
The BJP leadership’s trust in senior leader Om Mathur, considered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s confidant, remains intact. After being named for the powerful Central Election Committee recently, Mathur will also take charge of Chhattisgarh, where elections are due next year and the BJP is hoping to unseat the Congress. Some in-charges have been retained, such as Arun Singh in Rajasthan and Murlidhar Rao in Madhya Pradesh.
The party’s regular TV face Sambit Patra will be coordinator for the north-eastern states with party national secretary Rituraj Sinha the joint coordinator, the party announced.
(Manas Dasgupta)
