BJP in High Gear for 2024 Poll

The rejigging exercise by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday points to party’s exceptional keenness to go one up against the recently floated opposition block INDIA and to gear up for the challenge in General Elections slated for AprilMay 2024.

The party appointed 13 new vice presidents, nine new general secretaries and nine secretaries on Saturday (August 29).

By appointing former Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Prof. Tariq Mansoor and Anil Antony, son of former Kerala Chief Minister A. K. Antony, as vice president and secretary respectively, the party has taken a giant step in matters of reaching out to Muslim and Christian minorities.

Prof. Mansoor comes from the Pasmanda category of Muslims while Anil who quit the Indian National Congress earlier this year, can well be flaunted as a trophy from a state that has scrupulously spurned the party.

His usefulness also lies in being a Christian, and son of a former Congress chief minister at that. Mansoor was nominated for the Legislative Council in Lucknow only recently.

The Party already has Abdulla Kutty from Kerala among the top echelons of the party. New general secretaries include Bandi Sanjay from Telangana and Radha Mohan Agrawal from Uttar Pradesh. Bandi Sanjay headed the party in Telangana till recently. He has been replaced by Union Minister Kishen Reddy.

The choices impart wider representational character to the organization at the apex level. However, dropping of C. T. Ravi from the post of general secretary owes itself to party’s loss of power in Karnataka.

Grapevine has it that he may be appointed the President of the Party in Karnataka and will also be given the ticket for the Lok Sabha election. A similar consideration may be at the back of dropping Dilip Saikia who is a Member of the Parliament and may be fielded again from Assam. Saikia’s vacation of the post has been filled by Kamakhya Prasad Tasa from the same state.

Tasa has been the face of the tribes living in tea plantations in the state. With Assembly polls for Chhattisgarh in view, Saroj Pandey and former minister in the state Lata Usendi, have been appointed vice presidents even as former chief minister Raman Singh retains his national vice president’s post. Striking a caste balance too runs central to the scheme for the reshuffle.

The party is making overtures to the Other Backward Communities (OBCs) in a big way. Bandi Sanjay belongs to the Munnuru Kapus, an OBC component in a state where Reddys have ruled the roost. It reflects the pining for wooing the OBCs who have mainly been on the side of KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), a party keen on spreading its wings beyond the State.

Similarly, Lata Usendi comes from scheduled tribes. In the high stake game, the BJP appears to be sparing no opportunity to remain the frontrunner. The overhaul is a positive step in the direction.