BJP Leaders Dropped As Chief Ministers, Central Ministers Get New Roles, Vijay Rupani, Biplab Deb On List
BJP Director JP Nadda with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. (File)
New Delhi:
The BJP, which focuses on state elections and national polls in 2024, today announced new party roles for laid-off leaders as ministers and central ministers. This includes new charges against states whose ministers are a major driver towards unity of the Opposition to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Today’s order from BJP Director JP Nadda says former Gujarat chief Vijay Rupani will handle Punjab and Chandigarh. Punjab, currently run by Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, is a major BJP project. It couldn’t do much in council polls earlier this year – fighting for himself – as it was rejected by senior partner Akali Dal because the agricultural law was repealed following massive protests.
In Haryana, former Tripura chief Biplab Kumar Deb will be in charge. Here, the party retains power but has lost some positions in the most recent polls in 2019. The next parliamentary elections will take place in 2024, but after the Lok election. Sabha.
For former union ministers, Prakash Javadekar gets Kerala, where the BJP has struggled to find a foothold for itself. And Mahesh Sharma gets Tripura, where the party is in power but faces polls early next year. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which defeated the BJP in West Bengal last year, is looking to expand into Tripura, which has a majority Bengali-speaking population.
In West Bengal, the BJP appointed former Bihar Minister Mangal Pandey as its curator. The head of the IT department of the Party, Amit Malviya will be the general in charge.
Despite last year’s defeat, the BJP increased its number of seats on the council. It continues to pursue an active political brand here, especially Mamata Banerjee one of the main driving forces towards a nationwide front against BJP.
Mr. Pandey will work with Sunil Bansal, who oversees Bengal in addition to Odisha and Telangana.
Bihar will be held by general secretary Vinod Tawde, who previously oversaw Haryana. The BJP here is recovering from the dumping of Minister Nitish Kumar, who revived the JDU’s alliance with Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD and Congress last month. He was in Delhi recently for an expansion anti-BJP front panel.
In neighboring Jharkhand, Laxmikant Vajpayee will be in charge of the BJP. Hemant Soren’s government here accused the BJP of “dirty politics” to strip MLA from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Parliament.
The BJP leadership’s confidence in senior leader Om Mathur, considered a confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, remains intact. After being recently elected to the powerful Central Election Commission, Mr Mathur will also take charge of Chhattisgarh, one of the few states where Parliament holds power. Elections will take place next year.
Sambit Patra, the BJP’s featured TV face, will be the coordinator for the northeastern states. Party general secretary Rituraj Sinha will be the general coordinator. Among those detained indictments are Arun Singh of Rajasthan and Murlidhar Rao of Madhya Pradesh.
The group has also shared the list, in Hindi, on Twitter.
भाजपा राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री @JPNadda -प्रभारी pic.twitter.com/Rn4uyB8cmL
– BJP (@ BJP4India) September 9, 2022
Most of the newly appointed leaders do not hold party positions but have been in charge of previous elections.
Sources say the idea is that they won’t be weighed down by party positions as they focus entirely on expanding the BJP’s base and winning elections in specific states.
