BJP strengthens Bihar team

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 3

The BJP today made several changes in the party’s organisational set-up, especially in poll-bound Bihar and politically significant Uttar Pradesh. The party also created a separate wing for Other Backward Classes with SP Singh Baghel from UP its president.

The changes followed a meeting of BJP office-bearers held under party chief Amit Shah to review the progress on the organisational front.

CR Patil, Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat, and Delhi-based Pawan Sharma will be assisting Bihar in charge Bhupendra Yadav, who has also been given the SC Morcha charge.

For UP, Shah has appointed five co-in charge—MPs Virendra Khateek and Ramesh Bidhuri along with Rameshwar Chaurasiya, Satyendra Kushwaha and Sunil Ojha. Senior leader Om Prakash Mathur, party vice-president, will continue to be the state in charge. Newly appointed general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, credited for the party’s success in Haryana, will replace Sidhharth Nath Singh as the Bengal in charge.

Purandeshwari Devi, a minister in the UPA government who quit the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, has been given the charge of the Mahila Morcha. She replaces Vijaya Rahatkar. Ramvichar Netam will be the new ST Morcha president.

Prakash Jha, Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, will be the new in charge for Punjab and Chandigarh. However, Anil Jain, Shrikant Sharma, Avinash Rai Khanna and Shyam Jaju will continue to function as the in charge in Haryana, HP, J&K and Uttarakhand.