Having suffered reverses in recent bypolls, the BJP moved to rejig its organisations in two states where Assembly elections are due later this year, as it appointed a new party president in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday and appeared set to bring in a new chief in Rajasthan.
BJP president Amit Shah appointed Rakesh Singh, the party’s chief whip in Lok Sabha, as the head of its Madhya Pradesh unit, replacing Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, who had been at the helm since August 2014.
A BJP statement said Rajasthan party chief Ashok Parnami and Andhra Pradesh unit chief K Hari Babu — both of whom resigned — have been made members of its national executive, besides Chauhan.
Parnami on Wednesday resigned as BJP chief of Rajasthan. Sources said new heads of the party in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh will be announced soon.
“I have worked for strengthening the party as its worker. I will continue to work in accordance with responsibilities given to me as a disciplined party worker,” Parnami said. He was appointed Rajasthan BJP chief in February 2014 and is an MLA from Jaipur’s Adarsh Nagar constituency.
Asked if his resignation was a fallout of the BJP’s defeat in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls in Alwar and Ajmer, Parnami said, “Any defeat or victory is a collective responsibility and individuals are not responsible.”
{{/usCountry}}Asked if his resignation was a fallout of the BJP’s defeat in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls in Alwar and Ajmer, Parnami said, “Any defeat or victory is a collective responsibility and individuals are not responsible.”
{{/usCountry}}Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who was in contention for the post of party president in Madhya Pradesh, will be its campaign committee chief, sources said.
Elections to the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will be held by the end of the year.
The BJP is in power in the state for 15 years and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has led it to convincing victories in the 2008 and 2013 Assembly polls.
However, the party’s loss in a string of bypolls coupled with agitations by farmers and Dalits has given the opposition Congress hope that it can breach the saffron fortress this time.
The BJP is believed to be facing a much stronger challenge in Rajasthan, underlined recently in its loss in the two Lok Sabha bypolls. Rajasthan too will go to polls later this year.
In Andhra Pradesh, the party has been left without an ally and hopes to strengthen its organisation under a new president. It has claimed that the decision of the Telugu Desam Party to break ties has given the party an opportunity to broaden its base.