BJP moves key man in Uttar Pradesh to New Delhi

Sunil Bansal named national general secretary in charge of Odisha, Telangana, Bengal

August 10, 2022 09:55 pm | Updated 09:55 pm IST - New Delhi

Sunil Bansal.

Sunil Bansal. | Photo Credit: @sunilbansalbjp/Twitter

In a major organisational change, BJP president J.P. Nadda appointed Sunil Bansal, a long-time general secretary (organisation) in Uttar Pradesh, as a national general secretary in charge of Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal.

Mr. Bansal has served for long in a post key to managing the party organisation and coordination. He rose to prominence during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s stint as party general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh and the spectacular 71-seat-haul that happened during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He has been closely working with the national team through the other three elections in that State, in 2017, 2019 (General Election) and the recently concluded Assembly polls.

Sources in the BJP said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Mr. Bansal did not quite have the same warm equations as the latter shared with the national team and Mr. Shah, a reason being cited by senior leaders for the organisational shift.

What is interesting is that Mr. Bansal has been given charge of States like Odisha and Telangana where the BJP wants to grow and West Bengal, where he replaces Kailash Vijayvargiya, and where the party is desperate to rediscover its mojo.

Keshav Maurya, Deputy Chief minister of the State, also considered close to the national leadership was appointed leader of the BJP legislative party in the Legislative Council. He replaced BJP State president Swatantra Dev Singh.

Moving Mr. Bansal from U.P. to Delhi is part of a pattern being seen in the recent changes made to the roles of several people occupying the general secretary (organisation) slot. Last month, Mr. Nadda appointed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Rajesh G.V. as general secretary (organisation) for Karnataka, replacing Arun Kumar who had been there for a while, but was very closely identified with national general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh. The replacement of Mr. Kumar by Rajesh G.V., one of the youngest to occupy that position, indicates that the party wanted fresh blood in the crucial state of Karnataka, one that has no legacy issues with the leadership.

Ajay Jamwal has now been appointed to take care of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, two poll-bound States, but it is also known that he had some run-ins with those in charge of these States. BJP Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s run-ins with Manthri Srinivasulu, general secretary (organisation) of the State, has resulted in the latter’s shift to Punjab.

Karmveer Singh, joint general secretary of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, has been moved to Jharkhand.

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