BJP walks back to Sangh grip

In a key move aimed at strengthening the RSS8217; grip over the BJP organisation, a decision taken in the aftermath of the poll debacle, th...

In a key move aimed at strengthening the RSS8217; grip over the BJP organisation, a decision taken in the aftermath of the poll debacle, the BJP today announced the appointment of six kshetriya sanghathan mantri zonal organising secretaries belonging to the RSS.

The low-profile RSS men will be the live link between the parent organisation and it8217;s political wing. They include Venugopal Reddy, V. Satish, Mukundan, Ram Pyare Pandey, Saudan Singh and Prasanna Mishra. More appointments in the category are likely since all the zones were not covered today.

The BJP also announced its list of new prabharis central leader in-charge of states, of which the names from Uttar Pradesh were the most significant. Keen to revive in UP and stem the factionalism in the state unit, plum assignments have been given to the leading troika of central leaders 8212; Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra.

Kalyan Singh has been made prabhari of UP, while Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra have been given the charge of two major states each. Rajnath will now look after Chhattisgarh, in addition to the election-bound Jharkhand state, while Mishra has got both Rajasthan and Delhi.

Although Rajnath Singh and Mishra will not be involved in the day-to-day affairs of their home state, the 8216;8216;respect and responsibility8217;8217; given to them is aimed at beefing up their respective support bases in UP, sources said. Since Rajnath Singh is regarded as the party8217;s key Thakur leader in UP and Mishra belongs to the Brahmin old guard, their elevation is also part of the strategy to regain the support of upper castes who largely abandoned the BJP in the last elections, they added.

The newly-appointed state president, Kesri Nath Tripathi, is arriving here tomorrow and will hold discussions with party chief Venkaiah Naidu and also meet A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani. Tripathi will be briefed on the decisions taken at the Goa Chintan Baithak on how to revamp the organisation in UP, Naidu said.

Pramod Mahajan was put in charge of Maharashtra but Arun Jaitley was given charge of Madhya Pradesh, in addition to Bihar.

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A number of former ministers have also been drafted into the organisation. They include Shahnawaz Hussain Orissa, Jaskaur Meena Punjab, Rajiv Pratap Rudy Sikkim and Swamy Chinmayanand Arunachal Pradesh.

Former RSS pracharak Seshadri Chari has been made in-charge of Uttaranchal. Bal Apte, has got Andhra Pradesh, while Bihar leader, Sushil Modi, has been put in charge of West Bengal and M.A. Naqvi of Himachal Pradesh.