In an effort to enter the electoral fray with a clean slate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped scam-tainted former minister Dilip Singh Judeo as vice-president of the party's Chhattisgarh unit.
Hoping to make a clean sweep of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the forthcoming general election, the party has sidelined the former Union minister of state for forests and environment, who was allegedly filmed accepting a bribe in a videotape.
However, though the party has ousted him as vice-president, it has kept him in the 75-member executive committee announced by state party president Nand Kumar Sai.
The new list of office-bearers had been pending for several weeks.
The removal of Judeo from the vice-president's post is being viewed as a well-planned BJP move to counter the Congress game plan.
The Congress had recently unleashed an attack on the BJP for backing the former Union minister despite the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirming that the videotape used in the exposé was genuine.
The party's central leadership had directed the state unit to sideline Judeo.
{{/usCountry}}The party's central leadership had directed the state unit to sideline Judeo.
{{/usCountry}}Punnulal Mohile, Shivpratap Singh, Khubchand Parakh and Jageshwar Sahu have been appointed party vice-presidents in the new team.