3 RSS men in race for state BJP chief

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 11

Even as the “Shiksha Varg” (officers’ training camp) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is in progress in Pathankot, names of at least three sewaks have started doing the rounds for the post of the state BJP president.

Union Minister Vijay Sampla, who was last year given the charge, has met party president Amit Shah twice on the state leadership issue after the elections. Against the party’s “one leader, one post” norm, Sampla was asked to continue for the time being, it was learnt.

The three RSS leaders high on the list of potential candidates are Parveen Bansal (Ludhiana), Rakesh Rathore (Jalandhar) and Narinder Parmar (Pathankot). Another name that featured in the RSS camp is that of Jiwan Gupta, a businessman from Ludhiana. At the same time, it is learnt that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is backing the candidature of Rajya Sabha MP Shwet Malik.

A former state secretary said: “While former state presidents Kamal Sharma, Ashwani Sharma, Avinash Rai Khanna and Rajinder Bhandari have not staked claim to the post, party sources say the high command is strongly considering a fresh face to lead the party in the state.”