With former Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik and MP Vikram Usendi already in the race, former State Minister Ramvichar Netam, a tribal leader from Surguja, is the latest name joining the race for the post of State BJP chief, party sources here informed.
Sources said that supporters of Netam are also playing the ‘caste card’ to install him in the party’s top post.The BJP State president’s post is lying vacant as the former party chief and MP Vishnudev Sai has been appointed as Minister of State in the Narendra Modi Government.Efforts were underway in the party to install somebody in his place. Sources said that the new State president could be appointed in the next three-four days.
The BJP has won most of the seats in the Scheduled Caste dominated areas and done fairly well in Other Backward Class (OBC) dominated areas as well but had not fared well in tribal areas.The party will take all possible measures to overcome its weakness in the tribal belts and hence appointment of a tribal leader on the top post should not be taken as surprise, the political observers believe.
The other leaders whose names were in circulation include Kanker MP Vikram Usendi, former Minister lata Usendi, former Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik, former Chhattisgarh Assembly Deputy Speaker Narayan Chandel.Some of these leaders have already met BJP national president Amit Shah and expressed their desire to head the party in Chhattisgarh.
