BJP set to shift its HQ from Rohtak to Panchkula on April 6

The BJP is all set to shift its base from Haryana’s political capital Rohtak to Panchkula, which is close to state capital Chandigarh’s “power corridors”.

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The state unit has already been informed about the directive of the top brass of the party. The shift will take place on April 6, around the time the new party chief is likely to be in place given the ongoing organisational elections.

“We will hold our foundation day programme on April 6 at the new party headquarters in Panchkula. This will be followed by another big programme to mark the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar on April 14,” state chief Mohan Lal Badoli said.

Stating that the Rohtak party office would be turned into a workers’ training school, Badoli said all administrative activities would be carried out from Panchkula.

“We have been in Rohtak because all political parties were headquartered there. Our tallest leader, the late Deputy Chief Minister and seven-time MLA Mangal Sen, also came from Rohtak. We felt the need to move to Panchkula where we have a building with rooms for office-bearers as well as workers coming from anywhere in the state and a 600-seat auditorium. The closeness to Chandigarh where the government sits is a major plus point,” he explained.

With MLAs and party workers coming to Chandigarh with regard to work in the government, Satish Punia, in charge of the Haryana affairs of the party, said Panchkula was more suitable for the party headquarters.

“Each time there was a party meeting, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was forced to stall his work and travel all the way to Rohtak. With the party headquarters in Panchkula, working in tandem with the government will be easier and save the travel time of our leaders, MLAs and workers,” he said.

Though Rohtak was more central to leaders coming from Delhi and a party office has also come up in Gurugram, sources said the consensus within the party was to move to Panchkula given its proximity to the state capital. With this shift, the organisational secretary’s office will also move to Panchkula.

The Rohtak state headquarters, Mangal Kamal, which has served as the central hub for strategising statewide elections, including Lok Sabha, Assembly and urban local bodies, as well as for the party’s organisational and administrative activities, for the past several decades, will continue to house the offices of the party’s top leaders.

However, the offices of the Chief Minister, state president and the state general secretary (organisation), will remain located at the party offices in Rohtak, Gurugram, and Panchkula.

The Panchkula office, located near the airport, will ensure easy access to national-level office-bearers and party leaders to have a meeting there. This strategic location will also allow the Chief Minister to hold meetings with party office-bearers in Panchkula at any time.

Though the party activity has been on an upswing at the Panchkula office with the party’s legislature meeting chaired by Union Minister Amit Shah and the party meeting of newly elected representatives of the civic bodies held here, the party is all set to officially “open” the Panchkula office as its headquarters on April 6.