New Delhi, Five-time MLA and former assembly speaker Rajeev Bindal has been appointed president of the Himachal Pradesh BJP in the latest party rejig – a development which party sources said comes on the back of its loss in the hill state in the assembly polls last November.
Bindal, who hails from Solan in Himachal and had earlier served as the Himachal BJP chief from 2018 till his resignation in 2020, is a close confidant of BJP national president JP Nadda and replaces Suresh Kumar Kashyap.
In other changes made on Sunday, the BJP swapped the posts of its Delhi general secretary (organisation) Siddharthan with his Himachal Pradesh counterpart, Pawan Rana.
Party sources have said that there was a need for a change of leadership in Himachal Pradesh after the BJP’s continuous defeats in local elections as well as assembly polls. The party not only lost the assembly elections to the Congress, but also faced defeat in the 2021 Mandi Lok Sabha bypolls and civic polls in Palampur and Solan.
A party source said, “Since Pawan Rana was the general secretary for a long time, he gained an edge and also played a key role in ticket distribution.”
The development also comes on the back of the BJP’s defeat in the Delhi local body elections. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the December 2022 Delhi municipal elections.
However, party sources told ThePrint that the change in postings of Rana and Siddharthan is not punitive. and that the two posts were swapped to address “challenges” in their respective units.
Both the leaders are considered close to BJP’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh.
Defeat in election, need for change
Bindal’s appointment comes despite him losing the Himachal Assembly polls to Ajay Solanki of the Congress by a slim margin of over 1,600 votes.
He resigned as state BJP chief in 2020 on moral grounds following allegations of corruption in the state health department. The BJP was in power in the state at the time of the allegations.
Siddharthan, the new general secretary (organisation) of Himachal, remained in the party’s Delhi unit for eight years. In that time, the state unit saw two major losses – the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections and the 2022 civic polls. Soon after the civic poll results, Adesh Gupta resigned as Delhi BJP chief following allegations of irregularities in ticket distribution.
He was replaced by Virendra Sachdeva.
Sources said it was clear after the “removal” of Adesh Gupta BJP Delhi President as the central leadership of the party wanted a change of unit.
Sources said a similar situation arose in Himachal as well, where several party leaders complained about Rana to BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Sources said among the major decisions the BJP was recommending a new candidate Sanjay Sood for the Shimla urban seat and moving former minister Suresh Bhardwaj to Kasumpti.
BJP had lost on both the seats.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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