Bansuri Swaraj & Arvind Menon given charge of party affairs in U’khand
By Arun Pratap Singh
Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 23 Sep: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has effected a major organisational reshuffle in 28 states and 8 union territories ahead of the Assembly elections in some of them including Uttarakhand. In Uttarakhand, leader in charge of the party affairs Dushyant Gautam has been replaced senior party leader Ram Madhav. In addition, the party has also appointed Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj and Arvind Menon as co-in-charges of Uttarakhand.
BJP national president Nitin Nabin announced the appointment of state in-charges and co-in-charges for several states, with Uttarakhand figuring prominently in the organisational changes. Ram Madhav will take charge as the BJP’s Uttarakhand in-charge while also continuing to oversee the party’s affairs in Tamil Nadu. Bansuri Swaraj and Arvind Menon have been appointed as co-in-charges of Uttarakhand.
The reshuffle comes ahead of the Assembly elections and at a time when Gautam has been facing unverified allegations in connection with the Ankita Bhandari murder case. His name had figured in allegations concerning an alleged VIP in the case after former MLA Suresh Rathore’s alleged wife Urmila Sanawar had publicly mentioned his name, triggering political controversy. While these claims have been not only vehemently denied by Gautam and the party as well as by the Police, and were never established, the opposition parties continued to mention him and as a result it was being speculated for past several months that he may be replaced. It may also be pertinent to remind here that Gautam has filed defamation suit against Rathore and Urmila Sanawar. Gautam has however now been replaced as the Uttarakhand in-charge as part of the latest organisational changes.
Rekha Verma, who was serving as one of the co-in-charges of Uttarakhand, has also been shifted and appointed as a co-in-charge for Madhya Pradesh. She had been associated with the Uttarakhand organisation for a considerable period and had been handling responsibilities of the party in the state. With the latest reshuffle, Bansuri Swaraj has been brought in as her replacement, along with Arvind Menon.
Ram Madhav is primarily linked with RSS and has now permanently chosen to be part of the BJP. He is known to be tough taskmaster and his appointment is being welcomed by many party leaders. They hope that he may prove to be effective in curbing factionalism within the party.
The appointment of Bansuri Swaraj is also significant as she is the daughter of former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and is a BJP MP from Delhi. She is a lawyer by profession and has been active in the party organisation and politics in the national capital. She is a law graduate from BPP Law School in England and holds a master’s degree from University of Oxford and is also a qualified Barrister in London.
Besides Uttarakhand, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe has been appointed in-charge of the BJP’s Delhi unit and Vinod Tawde has been appointed in-charge of the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit which is most crucial state for the party. In UP, Jagdish Patel, Medha Kulkarni, Pradeep Verma, and Anand have been named co-in-charges. Additionally, the BJP appointed Sanjay Bhatia as the in-charge for Rajasthan, with Kavita Patidar and Kuljit Chahal appointed as co-in-charges. Similarly, Smriti Irani who has made a powerful comeback within the party has been appointed as the BJP’s in-charge for Haryana and Chhattisgarh, while Harish Dwivedi was appointed in-charge for Bihar and Karnataka, and Tarun Chugh was appointed in-charge for Gujarat.
Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda has been appointed in-charge for Maharashtra; Amit Malviya, Sadanand Tanavade, and Kamaljeet Sehrawat have been appointed as co-in-charges.
