BJP infuses new blood into central team with eye on Assembly, Lok Sabha polls

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 29

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday revamped its organisation signalling a massive OBC Pasmanda Muslim outreach, rewarding leaders with ground connect, placating rebels and giving a lion’s share in top brass to leaders from Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum MPs (80) to the Lok Sabha.

Retained

National Vice President: Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh)

National General Secretary: Tarun Chugh (Punjab), Arun Singh (UP), Kailash Vijayvarghiya (MP)

Of the 38 national officer-bearers (including 13 national vice-presidents, nine general secretaries and 13 secretaries) named today, seven are from UP, three each from election-bound Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and two each from poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

Dropped

National Vice President: MPs Radha Mohan Singh & Bhartiben Shyal, former Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh

National General Secretary: MP Dilip Saikia, Karnataka leader CT Ravi

Top new entries in the rejig, aimed at preparing the party for 2024 LS polls and upcoming state elections, include former Aligarh Muslim University VC Tariq Mansoor, an MLC from Uttar Pradesh, as national vice-president; former Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay as general secretary; and Congress veteran AK Antony’s son Anil Antony from Kerala; and late Union minister Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde as national secretaries.

Mansoor’s appointment is key to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha plans of reaching out to Pasmanda Muslims, known to constitute over 80% of the national Muslim population. The PM has been vocal about empowering marginalised Muslims.

Mansoor will be BJP vice-president alongside three former CMs — Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) and Raghubar Das (Jharkhand) — who have been retained as national VPs.

Laxmikant Bajpai, a Rajya Sabha MP from UP; Lok Sabha MP Saroj Pande and tribal leader Lata Usendi (both from Chhattisgarh) are among four newly appointed vice-presidents, besides Mansoor.

Of nine national BJP general secretaries party chief JP Nadda has named, Sanjay Bandi and former four-term Gorakhpur MLA Radhamohan Das Agrawal are new, while Tarun Chugh (Punjab); Arun Singh (UP); Kailash Vijayvarghiya (MP); Dushyant Gautam (Delhi); Sunil Bansal (Rajasthan); and Vinod Tawde (Maharashtra) have been retained.

Influential BJP general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh from Karnataka stays in his post, which serves as a link between the RSS and BJP.

Firebrand Karnataka leader CT Ravi, a former four-term MLA from Chikmangalur, and Assam Lok Sabha MP Dilip Saikia have been dropped as general secretaries.

Bandi Sanjay’s appointment is meant to reward leaders credited with ground work to boost party prospects. Although replaced by Union Minister G Krishan Reddy as Telangana BJP chief recently, Bandi held strenuous foot marches in the state to generate support for the party.

Radhamohan Agrawal’s appointment is politically crucial as he is believed to have fallen out with Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath in 2017. In 2022, Yogi replaced Agrawal as a BJP candidate from Gorakhpur while the latter was sent to the Rajya Sabha.

Pankaja Munde who was striking rebellious notes; Anil Antony who recently joined the BJP and is likely to contest the Lok Sabha polls; Assam leader Kamakhya Prasad and Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Surendra Singh Nagar are the four newly appointed secretaries among 13. Nadda has kept BJP treasurer Rajesh Agarwal unchanged.

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