BJP heralds change with Bhandari as Punjab party chief

BJP President Rajnath Singh has nominated Rajinder Bhandari to head the Punjab unit of the party. With this the generational change in the Punjab BJP is complete. Bhandari is 50. Leader of the Punjab BJP legislature party Manoranjan Kalia, number two in the Parkash Singh Badal government, is 48.

Bhandari8217;s appointment implies that the party has moved beyond the old leadership defined by familiar names like Balram Das Tandon and Madan Mohan Mittal, both former state presidents. Sources in the party said the rank and file favoured a new face. The RSS too felt the need for a change. Tandon, who lost from Rajpura Assembly constituency in 2002, was denied a ticket by the party in the last polls. Mittal lost from Nangal in 2002 as well as 2007. Their defeat have been attributed as much to loss of popular support as to the alienation of the party cadre.

Bhandari was a general secretary in the team of outgoing president Avinash Rai Khanna. A hardcore RSS man, Bhandari teaches commerce at Arya College, Ludhiana. A member of the Panjab University Senate, he has stayed away from electoral battles and worked at the organisation level.

At a time when the party is keen on consolidating its base in the aftermath of an unprecedented success in Assembly polls8212;19 seats out of the 23 contested8212;Bhandari is viewed as an ideal choice. The reason: he is urbane, educated, non-controversial and has no Assembly or Lok Sabha constituency to take care of.