The rebel leaders from Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress who had joined Bharatiya Janata Party recently found place in the core group of election panel of the party that was announced on Thursday.
The 27-member panel will have union ministers like Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra and Uma Bharati. State party president Keshav Prasad Maurya and general secretary Sunil Bansal, in-charge of UP Om Prakash Mathur and head of BJP’s mahila wing Swati Singh are also part of this panel, party spokesman Harishchandra Srivastava said in a statement issued here.
Interestingly, Swamy Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak – the rebel BSP leaders and Rita Bahuguna Joshi, former Congress state president are also included in the core group. “They are senior leaders. Ritaji was state president of Congress and has experience in leading party in election while Swamy Prasad Maurya too had a vast experience in conducting elections. Their inclusion will bring new ideas,” party’s spokesman Hridaya Narain Dixit said.
Besides, they are now BJP’s leaders. Why still you are treating them as rebels,” he said.
The other member include former state presidents Om Prakash Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Dr Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Surya Pratap Shahi, Dr laxmi Kant Bajpai, senior party leaders Shiv Prakash, party’s national vice-president Dr Dinesh Sharma, Arun Singh, Mahendra Singh, leader of party’s legislature party Suremsh Khanna, Sunil Ojha, Virendra Khatik, Ramesh Bidhudi, Rameshwar Chaurasia, Salil Vishnoi, Ramashankar Kateria and Swatantradeo Singh.