6 June  2001

BJP SETUP GEARED TO FULLTIME POLL-FIGHTING

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Apparently worried over the Bhartiya Janata Party's dwindling fortunes in the past few elections, its president K. Jana Krishnamurthi has appointed Pyarelal Khandelwal of Madhya Pradesh as the fulltime in-charge of elections as an all-India general secretary in the new set of office-bearers announced here on Wednesday.

Khandelwal, a fulltime RSS pracharak who was pulled back from the backwaters of Orissa by Bangaru Laxman on becoming the President, was so far incharge of the Uttar Pradesh affairs to guide the party for the next Assembly elections. His job as incharge of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Delhi now goes to former BJP President Kushabhau Thakre.

Since Thakre and Khandelwal have an old enmity from their Madhya Pradesh days, the political observers wonder if the new combination would help or harm the ruling BJP in its preparations for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Gujarat, which had nobody at the party headquarters as "prabhari" incharge since after Krishnamurthi became the President, will now have former Delhi Chief Minister and BJP Vice-President Madanlal Khurana  to look after Gujarat as well as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Chandigarh by BJP Secretary Om Prakash Kohli, a former Delhi BJP chief while Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka would be looked after by Mumbai-based All-India Treasurer Ved Prakash Goyal.

Former Rajasthan BJP Chief and now all-India Vice-President Ramdas Agarwal has been made in-charge of "Aajeevan Sahayog Nidhi" and as such he has been placed almost next to the long-time treasurer Ved Prakash Goyal, indicating that he may ultimately succeed as the new treasurer in the next party elections two years later.

Andhra Pradesh will be looked after by Ashwin Kumar, a MP from Bihar while Andhrite V Ramarao described by Krishnamurthi as "the senior-most party leader in the four southern states," has been made Vice-President incharge of the South covering Kerala, Lakshdweep, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

MODI'S WINGS CLIPPED: The new dispensation also saw the all-powerful General Secretary Narendra Modi's responsibilities cut down to the bare minimum of being incharge of organistion while the most important and key job of the Media Publicity, Publications and Parliament coordination has gone to another General Secretary Sunil Shastri, son of late former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who had defected from the Congress.

The BJP sources said Modi's wings have been curtailed but still he is likely to share the limelight as a spokesman with two new and glamorous spokespersons -- Sunil Shastri and Maya Singh. In fact, Modi may also find himself in competition with Maya Singh in administrative matters as she is the new general secretary in charge of Headquarters, the job which Modi had earlier captured.

Releasing the list of reconstituted office-bearers, the BJP chief said that at the end of the day, a party's standing was determined by its performance in the elections. Since elections had now become an annual affair, he had requested Khandelwal, earlier a vice-president, to swap place with former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, who was earlier a general secretary, and devote himself full-time to keep the party ever ready to fight elections.

This, however, is not the only departure in the 20-year-old pattern of reconstitution of the central party set-up which merely focused on allocation of states to various senior leaders, as BJP chief put it.

STRESS ON LITERATURE: In the second major departure, senior-most vice-president Kailashpati Mishra will be heading a refurbished publication cell of the party that will now have to produce much more literature to "educate, motivate and give direction" to the rank and file of the workers. with this, Krishnamurthi hopes to address a frequent concern of BJP leadership and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that enough is not being done to broadcast and explain the various achievements of the BJP-led government in New Delhi.

To back up these new initiatives, the BJP chief has recognised the organisational set up. Duplication is being ended by eliminating the post of office secretary and elevating the incumbent, Dr. Ram Kirpal Sinha to the new post of Secretary in charge of publications.

In line with the new trend, general secretary Sunil Shastri has been made in charge of media (not just print, but electronic media and the web), publicity and coordination with the parliamentary wing of the BJP.

BJP Vice-President and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Gopinath Munde is incharge of the Morchas and so will be Sahib Singh Verma while others looking after various morchas are General Secretary Sanghapriya Gautam, and Secretaries Mrs Kantha Nalvade and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The BJP has a score of frontal organisations. Krishnamurthi said he would decide later as to which "morcha" would go to whom.

But on the whole, the new list, or rather the poll philosophy guiding it, appears to be echoing a stray but significant remark of Vajpayee as he stepped on Indian soil recently at the end of a tour of Malaysia: "Be ready for elections. They can be held any time." END