New Delhi: The BJP, focused on state elections and the 2024 national polls, today announced new party roles for leaders sacked as chief ministers and central ministers.
Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, and former Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Mahesh Sharma have all been assigned states.
Vijay Rupani will be in charge of Punjab and Biplab Deb will take charge of Haryana.
Prakash Javadekar gets Kerala, as per orders issues by party chief JP Nadda.
Bihar will be the responsibility of party general secretary Vinod Tawde, who was earlier in charge of Haryana.
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, Mr Mathur will also take charge of Chhattisgarh, where elections are due next year and the BJP is hoping to unseat the Congress.
Another leader who has snagged an important assignment is former Bihar minister Mangal Pandey. He 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 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.
Some in-charges have been retained, such as Arun Singh in Rajasthan and Murlidhar Rao in Madhya Pradesh.
Laxmikant Vajpayee will take charge of Jharkhand. Mahesh Sharma will look after Tripura.
Sambit Patra, BJP’s prominent TV face, will be coordinator for the northeastern states. Party national secretary Rituraj Sinha will be joint coordinator.