Haryana BJP chief to be named in 2 weeks

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

A new state BJP president is likely to be in saddle shortly even as the process for organisational appointments has been set in motion following the announcement of mandal presidents here today.

The party appointed presidents for 235 of the 300 mandals across the state with the remaining 65 likely to be announced next week. Sirsa is the only district where no mandal president has been announced.

According to sources, once this is done, appointment of district presidents will follow. The sources have said the names of district presidents are likely to be out before the end of this month.

All these appointments have been decided after exhaustive consultations by senior leaders with local leaders of mandals and districts they were assigned.

Since a similar committee of the central leadership has undertaken consultations with state leaders to choose a president, the name of state chief will be announced from Delhi, which is expected over the next two weeks.

According to information available, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is pitching for continuation of state unit chief Subhash Barala, who lost from Tohana in the Assembly elections last year. Certain leaders have this reservation against his continuation.

While Barala is one of the contenders for the post, Kurukshetra Member of Parliament Nayab Singh Saini, also a confidant of the Chief Minister, is in the race for the post in case the BJP decides to overlook the caste equation in the state, where a non-Jat is already the Chief Minister.

The sources maintain that other names doing the rounds are those of former Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, also a Jat face of the party and farmers’ leader, Union Minister of State Krishan Pal Gurjar and MLA Deepak Mangla, who was expected to make it to the Khattar Cabinet given his rise from the ranks within the organisation and his closeness to the Chief Minister. This call will be taken by the central leadership and is being seen as particularly critical to the state since the BJP barely scraped through and formed the government after working out a post-poll alliance.

The sources have said the appointments will be made with a view to further strengthening the base of the party in a state, which saw the first BJP government afer the 2014 elections.

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