With an eye on future elections and State-specific organisational restructuring, BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday entrusted the responsibility of the key State of Uttar Pradesh to Om Mahtur, who till now was the election in-charge of Maharashtra, wherein the party is set to form the Government. National general secretary JP Nadda has been handed over the responsibility of Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
In a major reshuffle of ‘Prabharis’ (States-in-charge), Shah has put Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan Bhupendra Yadav in-charge of Bihar where the BJP is expected to challenge the combined might of the Janata Dal (United), the Congress and the RJD in 2015. Yadav, a lawyer by profession, is known to be close to the party president.
General Secretaries Rajiv Pratap Rudy, until now in-charge of Maharashtra besides a backward MP from Agra Ram Shankar Katheriya have been given responsibilities of two States each.
While Rudy, who did not get a berth in the Modi Cabinet, has been given the tough task of expanding BJP's base in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Katheria, who was inducted as General Secretary earlier this year from UP, got Chhattisgarh and Punjab. While BJP is ruling Chhattisgarh single-handedly, it is sharing power with its ally Shrimoni Akali Dal in Punjab which kicked a row recently by campaigning in Haryana for INlD, BJP's political rival.
Delhi, which may face polls soon, is with General Secretary Prabhat Jha, who has handled the State earlier too. Neighbouring Haryana would be looked after by Anil Jain, a RSS man, who as deputy-election-in charge of the State along with the election-in-charge and Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijayavargia, saw the installation of a BJP Government in the State for the first time.
Dr Dinesh Sharma, vice-president, who along with senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu went to Haryana as observers in the meeting that elected party’s Chief Ministerial nominee Ml Khattar, would take the responsibility of Gujarat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State. Former Gujarat State president and incumbent BJP vice-president Purushottam Rupala has been given the charge of Goa.
Srikant Sharma, a long-time media in-charge and recently inducted as national secretary, will be the new BJP man to handle Himachal Pradesh where the party lost power to the Congress narrowly in the last Assembly polls.Uttarakhand, where the BJP again lost power to the Congress by a few seats, has been given to Shyam Jaju, national secretary, who is close to RSS.
H Raja will handle the double responsibility of Kerala and lakshadweep, Mahendra Singh Assam, Sunil Deodhar Tripura and PK Krishna Das Telangana.Poonam Mahajan, national secretary and daughter of former senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, is to take care of Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. Jammu & Kashmir’s responsibility has been entrusted to Avinash Khanna, a BJP leader from Hoshiarpur (Punjab) and Rajya Sabha member.
West Bengal, where the party won its first Assembly seat in a by-election and before that two lok Sabha seats besides markedly increasing its vote percentage in the General Elections, would continue with Sidharth Nath Singh as its Prabhari. Odisha's charge also remains with Arun Singh.TS Rawat, a BJP leader from Uttarakhand, has been made ‘Prabhari’ of Jharkhand, which would go to polls shortly.Madhya Pradesh, one of the most important States of the Hindi heartland, comes under veteran Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, BJP vice-president, known for his proximity with Sangh Parivar.
Karnataka, the first southern bastion where BJP formed its Government under BS Yeddyurappa but lost it to the Congress under controversial circumstances, would be revamped by P Muralidhar Rao, General Secretary and former head of ‘Swadeshi Jagran Manch’. During elections, Rao, close to RSS, was looking after Tamil Nadu.