Skip to main content

BJP Gets New State Chiefs, Moves Closer To Elect New National President

The BJP on Monday moved towards rolling out the exercise to have a new national president as the party elected chiefs in some states and is set to announce more on Tuesday that will put the requisite number of state heads at the helm for it to pick the replacement of J P Nadda.

The BJP's constitution requires the election of its presidents in at least 19 out of its 37 organisational states before the process to elect its national president begins, and the ruling party is set to cross the threshold on Tuesday.

V P Ramalingam and K Beichhua were elected BJP presidents of Puducherry and Mizoram respectively on Monday, while single nomination for the post was filed in states like Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, making their election a mere formality on Tuesday.

The BJP has now new state presidents, including some who were reelected, in 16 states, a figure that will rise on Tuesday. Some big states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh may also follow in the next few days.

The BJP has picked seasoned organisational men but with low public profile in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in Ramchander Rao and P V N Madhav respectively.

Maharashtra BJP working president and four-term MLA Ravindra Chavan is set to be elected president in place of Chandrashekhar Bawankule, a Cabinet minister in the BJP-led government in the state, while incumbent Uttarakhand president and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt is set to begin a new term.

The development has brightened the prospect for the BJP to elect its new national president to replace Mr Nadda, a Cabinet minister in the Modi government, in July.

Rao's choice, however, triggered a furious reaction from fiery Hindutva leader and MLA T Raja Singh, who resigned from the BJP. The elevation of Rao, a relatively low profile in the Telangana organisation riven with factionalism, is being seen as a balancing act and also a reward to old organisation hands.

The BJP's decision to replace its Lok Sabha MP Daggubati Purandeswari as its Andhra president with a seasoned organisation man is driven by its leadership's wish to build the organisation in a state where it is an ally of the ruling TDP but remains a minor electoral player.

Purandeswari, the daughter of towering Andhra leader N T Rama Rao and sister-in-law of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, enjoys a certain stature due to her family background and long stint in politics during which she served as a Union minister in the UPA government when she was in the Congress.

However, BJP sources said a thorough organisation leader like Madhav can be more helpful in building its organisation.

While Rao is a Brahmin, Madhav is from the Backward Classes, giving the party a toe hold in a community outside the ones that form the bulwark of all major political players in the state.

In Uttarakhand, the party, having made a Thakur leader in Pushkar Singh Dhami as the chief minister, has opted for a Brahmin face in Bhatt as its president. Chavan is a Maratha, a powerful community in Maharashtra.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/2MbrweU

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Delhi to Get More EV Charging, Battery Swapping Stations as Cab Aggregators Increase E-Bikes

The NDMC is planning to increase the number of EV charging stations in Lutyens' Delhi and even provide battery swapping facilities at some of these points, a senior official said on Wednesday. With Delhi being among the most polluted capitals in the world, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been making a push for electric vehicles to nudge residents to opt for cleaner vehicle options. There are around 100 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the national capital at present and this would be the first time that some of them would have battery swapping facilities, which is quite prominent in Western countries, he said. The official said the aim is to provide easy accessibility to charging stations and to save time by providing swapping facilities. This will give a major push to EVs in the city. Various PSUs, including the Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) and the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KELTRON), have approac...

After Nitish Kumar's 'Praise', BJP Says Doors Closed For Him

The opposition BJP in Bihar on Thursday said that its doors were "closed" for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who dumped the saffron party a year ago, stripping it of power in the state. State BJP President Samrat Choudhary made the averment to this effect in reply to queries from journalists about the Janata Dal United leader's address to the convocation ceremony of Mahatma Gandhi Central University at Motihari. Speaking in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu and Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Mr Kumar had freely spoken of the tussle he had with the then Congress government at the Centre for getting a university approved for Motihari, where Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Champaran Satyagraha. Without mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, Mr Kumar acknowledged that the project saw the light of the day only after a change of guard "in 2014" as the UPA government "initially refused and after much persuasion agreed in principle but did not move for...

Delhi Air On Brink Of Turning "Severe", Most Polluted In India

Delhi's air quality was on the brink of the 'severe' category on Sunday with an overall AQI reading of 382 - the worst recorded in the country for the day. Fifteen monitoring stations of the city recorded air quality levels in the 'severe' zone, having AQI readings over 400, data showed. The city also recorded its lowest nighttime temperature so far, as thick smog and haze shrouded it in a dense cover during the morning and evening hours. The minimum temperature recorded on Sunday was 16.5 degrees Celsius, 1.2 degrees above normal, according to the weather department. The national capital's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 382, worsening from 316 the previous day. The locations where air pollution levels reached the 'severe' zone are Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, NSIT Dwarka, Najafgarh, Nehru Nagar, Okhla Phase 2, Patparganj, Punjabi Bagh, Rohini, Wazirpur and Vivek Vihar...