Change in BJP leadership on the cards

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 27

With an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a change in the state BJP leadership is imminent in the coming days. According to sources, several leaders from the state core committee, district committees and mocrhas of the party are likely to be changed by mid-September.

The sources said one of the aims of the exercise was to accommodate Congress leaders who joined the BJP a couple of months ago. The party would expand its organisational structure and might offer important positions to the leaders who joined the party after leaving the Congress. Former PCC president Sunil Jakhar, four former Cabinet ministers — Balbir Singh Sidhu, Raj Kumar Verka, Gurpreet Kangar and Sundar Sham Arora — joined the BJP after leaving the Congress.

Will adjust tall leaders

We have several tall leaders from other parties who have joined the BJP in the past one year. We need to accommodate them as per their capabilities. —Subhash Sharma, State BJP Gen Secy

Earlier, Congress leaders Rana Gurmit Sodhi and Fateh Jang Bajwa had also joined the party before the Assembly elections. They are already active in the organisational structure of the party.

BJP state general secretary Subhash Sharma confirmed that there would be an expansion in the party structure. “We have several tall leaders from other parties who have joined the BJP in the past one year. We need to accommodate them as per their capabilities,” he said.

The sources said earlier the party had been contesting just three Lok Sabha seats for almost three decades. Now, its focus was on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and it would contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. “We need established leaders and a good organisational structure for the purpose,” said Sharma.

The three-year term of the state party president Ashwani Sharma is coming to an end in January. Sharma was elected to the post in 2020. The sources said the party could consider a new face for the post of president.

However, Sharma denied any such development and said even if there was any change on the cards, it was an internal matter of the party and he won’t comment on it.

Drew flak after Poor show in Assembly elections

After the BJP suffered a crushing defeat in the Assembly elections earlier this year, there was talk of a change in the state leadership as it faced heavy criticism. The saffron party contested 73 seats and could muster just 6.6 per cent votes and 54 of the 73 candidates lost their security deposit.

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