Himachal BJP chief Rajeev Bindal announces new state team; strikes balance between various factions

Shimla, July 20

Striking a balance between loyalists of all senior leaders, state BJP President Rajeev Bindal today announced his new team comprising of 20 state office-bearers including three women.

The team comprises of nine vice presidents, three general secretaries, seven secretaries and one treasurer. Vandana Yogi has been appointed state president of Mahila Morcha replacing Rashmi Dhar Sood.Tilak Raj has been appointed state chief of Yuva Morcha.

The new team announced by Bindal ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls has loyalists of BJP chief JP Nadda and former chief ministers PK Dhumal and Jai Ram Thakur.

An effort has been made to strike a balance by giving representation to all castes and marginalised sections. The new appointments have come into effect immediately.

Those appointed vice presidents include Virender Kanwar,a die hard Dhumal loyalist; Pawan Kajal, MLA and OBC leader who had switched sides from the Congress before the 2022 assembly elections; Churah MLA Hans Raj from the reserved category; Rajiv Sehzal, former health minister, also from the SC community; former education minister Govind Thakur; outgoing State Mahila Morcha president Rashmi Dhar Sood, who is close to Nadda; Payal Vaidya, Sanjeev Katwal and Rajeev Bhardwaj.

The three general secretaries include Sikander Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP who is from the SC community; Trilok Kapoor, a Gaddi and Scheduled Tribe (ST) leader and Bihari Lal Sharma. Kamaljit Sood (Shimla) has been appointed as the state treasurer.

Those appointed secretaries include Vinod Kumar, Nachan MLA and a Dhumal loyalist; Vishal Chauhan (Jwali), Dr Sanjay Thakur (Sundernagar), Narender Attri (Dharampur), Sumit Sharma (Una), Daisy Thakur (Kasauli) and Munish Chauhan (Nahan).

Bindal has also appointed 10 state BJP spokesperson, seven co-spokesperson and one media incharge. The organisational overhaul at the district level was done by Bindal yesterday.