Amit Shah unveils new BJP team; Varun Gandhi dropped

New Delhi: Ahead of the four crucial assembly elections later this year, newly appointed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah announced his party’s new office-bearers on Saturday.

The appointments include several members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who joined the BJP. Varun Gandhi who is one of the prominent young leaders of the party, has not be reappointed as a general secretary. Even though Shah dropped Gandhi, a Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh, the state has got preference in his team with 10 out of the 45 new office bearers.

Amit Shah on Saturday appointed four new party presidents for the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Assam, in place of party unit chiefs who were inducted as union ministers. Shah announced the new appointments keeping with the party tradition of one man-one post principle.

He announced the appointment of Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan, a Lok Sabha MP from Khandwa and former state general secretary, as the new BJP state unit chief for Madhya Pradesh.

Chauhan replaces Gwalior MP Narendra Singh Tomar, who has become the Union minister for Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment.

Former Vidhan Sabha speaker Dharmpal Kaushik has been appointed as the new party chief for the Chhattishgarh unit. He replaces party’s MP from Raigarh Vishnu Deo Sai, who has become Union minister of State for Mines, Steel and Labour and Employment.

Shah also announced the appointment of Tamilisai Soundararajan, a former national secretary, as the new party chief for the state of Tamil Nadu. She replaces the MP from Kanniyakumari Pon Radhakrishnan, who has since become Union minister of state for heavy industries and public enterprises.

Siddharth Bhattacharya, a former co-convener of the party’s legal cell has been made the new party president of its Assam state unit.

He replaces Sarbananda Sonowal, who has since become minister of state for skill development, entrepreneurship, youth affairs and sports (Independent Charge).

The BJP is preparing for assembly elections in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana later this year.

Notable among the RSS members who have recently joined the BJP are advisor to the rural development minister Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, former RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav, Muralidhar Rao and Shyam Jaju. Underlining the extent of RSS influence in the team, for the first time,the BJP president has appointed four joint secretaries, a post that is occupied only by RSS members and not by BJP party workers.

The new team also has B.S. Yeddyurappa, former chief minister of Karnataka who had to resign after corruption allegations.

Political analysts say the RSS will play a greater role in the expansion of the BJP in states where the party lacks organisational strength.

“The new BJP president wants to completely leverage the organisational skills of RSS. It will not only help in buying long term peace with RSS, which was absent during the tenure of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The association between Shah and RSS will also help in realising the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the BJP must stand on its own in as many states as possible. RSS too was not in favour of too many alliances in states,” said Jai Mrug, Mumbai based political analyst and cofounder of Y Point Analytics.

PTI contributed to this story