In a setback for senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sanjay Tandon, the party has dropped him as Himachal Pradesh co-in-charge in its latest organisational reshuffle, replacing him with Rajya Sabha member Darshana Singh.
The party on Wednesday appointed Singh to the post while retaining Srikant Sharma as the state in-charge. Tandon figures nowhere in the fresh list of state in-charges and co-in-charges announced by the party’s national leadership.
The changes come ahead of the Himachal assembly elections, due in 2027, and a little over two years after Tandon was reappointed the state co-in-charge in July 2024. He was first appointed to the post in 2020. Under his watch, the party lost the state assembly elections in 2022 when the Congress returned to power in Himachal, winning 40 of the 68 seats, while the BJP won 25.
Later in 2024, he made an unsuccessful electoral debut, losing the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat to Congress’ Manish Tewari by a narrow margin of 2,504 votes.
A month after the defeat, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the Chandigarh BJP’s state executive meeting in July 2024, had said the party could not have afforded to lose this seat, especially when it had been winning it for the past two terms.
{{/usCountry}}A month after the defeat, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the Chandigarh BJP’s state executive meeting in July 2024, had said the party could not have afforded to lose this seat, especially when it had been winning it for the past two terms.
{{/usCountry}}Tandon, however, has continued to remain active in the party organisation. He was elected a member of the BJP’s national council during the party’s organisational elections in January 2025.
He had served as Chandigarh BJP president for a decade, first taking over the post in January 2010 and subsequently continuing after being re-elected in 2013. He remained at the helm until 2020. During his tenure, Kirron Kher won the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat for the BJP in 2014 and 2019, while the party also recorded electoral gains in the municipal corporation.
When contacted, Tandon said the appointments were for the national leadership to decide and that he would not like to comment.
Pandey is party’s city in-charge
Former Union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey has been appointed the Chandigarh in-charge by the saffron party. He succeeds former Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg.