Kushabhau Thakre clips Govindacharya’s wings

It was widely believed in party circles that Govindacharya would be made the general secretary incharge of the organisation — a post which was considered to be the stepping-stone for the top job and which was held by Thakre in the previous dispensation.

Govindacharya has also been deprived of the crucial state of Bihar. The development is bound to bolster theconfidence of the party dissidents in the state who had been clamouring for his removal. Three of them had recently been suspended from the party, while two MPs have been served with show-cause notices.

Govindacharya has been made incharge of Rajasthan. He will also be responsible for coordination within the party and organising training programmes for workers across the country. In his place, party vice-president Kailashpati Mishra has been made in charge of the states of Bihar and West Bengal. Naidu seems to be the party’s rising star. He has been entrusted with the job of ensuring coordination between the party and the ruling coalition at the Centre. He is in charge of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka — states which go to the polls later this year.

Among the other general secretaries, Narendra Modi finds himself saddled with the job of looking after the party’s affairs in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. He has also been made incharge of the Bharatiya Janata YuvaMorcha, the BJP’s youth wing.

While Sanghpriya Gautam, a Rajya Sabha MP, has been asked to look after the party affairs in Goa and the politically crucial state of Maharashtra — states which go to the polls early next year, Sumitra Mahajan has been made in charge of Gujarat.

Curiously enough, Karia Munda, one of the seven vice-presidents, has not been allocated any work. A veteran BJP leader who was member of the 13-day Government led by Vajpayee, he probably has paid the price for criticising Govindacharya in the past.

Another vice-president K Jana Krishnamurthy has been entrusted with the task of looking after the party headquarters and thinktank, while J P Mathur has been made incharge of the media-cell and party workers grievances redressal cell.

Releasing the work-allocation list this afternoon, party spokesman K L Sharma said that Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, where Assembly elections were held recently, would be assigned to an office-bearer at a later date.