Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Nabin has made his first significant mark on the BJP's national apparatus with a major organisational reshuffle, bringing back key figures like Smriti Irani and Ram Madhav while removing Nadda-era functionaries, signalling a strategic move ahead of crucial state elections.
The ruling BJP in West Bengal has suspended 22 functionaries, including several mandal presidents, over allegations of extortion and indiscipline. This action follows public warnings from the party leadership against adopting an 'extortion culture' and comes ahead of a visit by BJP's central in-charge for West Bengal, Sunil Bansal, to review the party's organisation and the new government's functioning.
The BJP appointed Sunil Bansal, one of the party's key election managers, as its national general secretary and in charge of three opposition-ruled states -- West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana -- in run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
The brother of Champat Rai, who resigned as the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, on Monday defended him against allegations of embezzling donations for the Ram temple, saying his brother had sacrificed both his personal life and career for the Ram temple movement and the service of the nation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced a significant overhaul of its national team under party president Nitin Nabin, introducing numerous new faces and promoting prominent leaders like former Union minister Smriti Irani to general secretary and former RSS functionary Ram Madhav to vice president. The revamp aims to balance youth and experience while preparing for upcoming assembly and general elections.
Much of the credit for bringing the BJP, which had lost ground in UP, back to the top goes to Sunil Bansal.
Saurabh Chaudhary and Sakshi Sunil Padekar won titles in the men's 10m air pistol and women's 50m rifle 3 positions events respectively at the 24th Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting Championship.
Himachal Pradesh DGP Ashok Tiwari has recommended a detailed examination and action against the SDM of Solan for alleged misuse of official position, conflict of interest, and possible involvement in benami transactions related to land deals.
The BJP's landslide victory in West Bengal has not merely redrawn the electoral map but overturned the operating logic of politics in the state, breaching the TMC's entrenched fortress despite a decade-and-a-half of dominance, minority consolidation, and a sustained "outsider" narrative.
Hopefully, the BJP will realise that it's the right time for parivartan (change) in its polarising poll strategies after achieving the impossible-looking goal of winning West Bengal, argues Sheela Bhatt.
'When I asked Suvendu about the news that Didi was going to fight in his constituency, he said, 'Aami okhaney lorbo aar okhaney okey harabo (I will contest from there and defeat her there)' This was his comment while we were standing on the truck doing our roadshow.'
Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed BJP leaders to intensify grassroots outreach in West Bengal, setting performance benchmarks for the upcoming state elections. He emphasized party unity and the importance of booth-level workers.
'The move to appoint a person with a profile, markedly lower than the leader Nitin Nabin will replace, has the potential to put the brakes on the careers of several others in the party and government in the positions they currently hold,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
I learnt that Yogi was deeply unhappy with the BJP's choice of Lok Sabha candidates. He had proposed a list of names, but hardly any of his suggestions were accepted.
According to the party sources, the preparations are in full swing and seasoned BJP workers are being deployed on more than 50 seats.
Besides Nadda, BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, Union Minister, election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Dharmendra Pradhan, state unit president Swatantar Dev Singh and general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal were among those who attended the meeting that lasted for nearly five hours.
The core committee of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP met at the party headquarters in Lucknow in the presence of Nadda.
Former Union minister Prakash Javadekar and another senior party leader Om Prakash Mathur was made poll in-charge for Telangana and Chhattisgarh respectively, a party statement said.
Several Odisha police personnel and BJP supporters were injured and vehicles of the cops were damaged as saffron party workers fought a pitched battle with the force during a march to the assembly.
Sneh Prakash Bansal and his panel, as expected, cruised to a landslide victory over former India skipper Bishan Singh Bedi and his team in the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association polls on Tuesday. Bansal defeated the spin wizard in the contest for the DDCA president's post by a whopping 70 percent margin.
The Bijnor police has junked a noted journalist's allegation of land grabbing in Nagina town near here against Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Kshetra trust general secretary and Champat Rai.
The BJP has dropped C T Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam, as its general secretaries, and Vinod Sonkar, Harish Dwivedi, both Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, and Sunil Deodhar as secretaries.
He met the chief minister twice but was scolded and forced to leave, Chhotelal said.
Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) president Arun Jaitley has decided against contesting the upcoming state association elections scheduled on December 30 paving way for his confidant Sneh Bansal to take on legendary Bishan Singh Bedi in a prestigious fight.
BJP president JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among those who attended the meeting.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has raised the number of "difficult" Lok Sabha seats it is eying to win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to 160 from 144, with a big chunk of additions coming from Bihar where it is set to contest most of the constituencies on its own following its split with the Janata Dal-United.
For the first time, non-upper castes are in a majority in the board, as the party continues with its outreach to traditionally weaker and backward sections of society.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah are being showered with accolades for securing a historic victory in the Uttar Pradesh elections, the milestone's scriptwriter, Sunil Bansal is glad his hard work has finally paid off.
Many factors like women, caste combination, education qualification, age and performance of the legislators will be taken into consideration before the formation of the Yogi government 2.0, sources said on Thursday. Several rounds of meetings have taken place within the party after the poll results came out on March 10.
It was conveyed that he would not have a free rein in making bureaucratic postings. Sunil Bansal, handpicked by BJP president Amit Shah to execute his UP blueprint, has made it clear the party's writ would run over the government. But Adityanath has institutionalised a system to keep Bansal out, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
BJP's national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh on Monday held meetings with the top state leaders and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office-bearers here to review the party's programmes in the politically crucial state where assembly polls are due next year.
'They are our go-to men, our trouble-shooters.' 'They draw their strength from remaining low-key and accessible only to our workers.'
For the post of deputy chief minister, the names of Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya are in talks.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
Except drubbing in Delhi and Bihar, the BJP president has had a good record since he took over the reins of the party in June 2014, says Archis Mohan.
'Many veteran leaders in the Odisha BJP had met them, but their problems were never sorted out.'
'I was feeling so suffocated under Yogiji's rule.'
The Centre has appointed senior IAS officers Vumlunmang Vualnam and Neeraj Mittal as new secretaries in the ministry of civil aviation and the department of telecommunications respectively in a major secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle, a government order stated.
Among the other names tipped to make it to the Cabinet are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Baijayant Panda.
Air India Chairman Rajiv Bansal has been appointed as the new aviation secretary as part of a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Wednesday. K Rajaraman, additional secretary in the department of economic affairs, has been appointed as secretary, department of telecommunications, a personnel ministry order said.
