BJP gen secy relieved from post, party appoints 3 new dist chiefs

Bhatt confirmed that he has been relieved of responsibilities as general secretary from the party by party president C R Paatil.

When contacted, Paatil said, “He (Bhatt) has been relieved of his responsibilities…In party, one’s responsibilities keep on changing…When elections are coming up (changes do take place)…With that (Bhatt), we have also changed (some) district presidents.”

On Wednesday, Paatil has also appointed three new district presidents for Gir Somnath, Porbandar and Dangs. Mahendra Pithiya has been appointed as Gir-Somnath president and Ramesh Odedara has been appointed as district president for Porbandar. In Dangs, Kishor Gavit has been appointed as district president of the party.

In Gir Somnath, Pithiya has served as general secretary of the party’s unit for the district and was among the main contenders for BJP ticket to contest the 2022 Assembly election from Talala constituency.

The party organisation for the Bhavnagar city and Bhavnagar district has also been overhauled.

In Bhavnagar, the party overhauled district and city units after their presidents, Mukesh Langaliya and Rajiv Pandya were recently replaced by former MLA and minister RC Patel and Abhaysinh Chauhan respectively for different reasons.

“There were lots of complaints about Langaliya’s attitude and behaviour as president of BJP’s Bhavnagar district unit. The party had decided long ago that he needed to be changed but had withheld the execution of that decision due to the Assembly election in December last year,” a BJP source said, adding, “Generally, our president of a district or city units gets to choose his or her team in consultation with the party leadership. Therefore, it is natural that the entire unit is overhauled when the president is changed and the same has happened today.”

“In the Bhavnagar city unit, after Sejal Pandya was elected MLA, her husband had stepped down as party’s city unit president in keeping with the party’s norm of not allowing two members from a family to occupy two positions. Therefore, Chouhan, who has served as the chairman of standing committee of the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation and who has experience of working in the party organisation, has been appointed president and in his team announced today, preference has been given to those who too have experience of working in the party organisation,” said another source in the BJP.