Bangaru back, Varun gets BJP post

Bangaru back, Varun gets BJP post
TNN, Jul 24, 2010, 03.02am IST
NEW DELHI: Disgraced former BJP chief Bangaru Laxman, who was caught on camera accepting a bribe, has made a comeback in the party's new team as election in-charge of Tamil Nadu while Varun Gandhi has been appointed in the same capacity for Assam. Vasundhara Raje will take charge of Haryana and former party chief M Venkaiah Naidu has been given charge of the important states of Delhi and Maharashtra.

The much-awaited list of BJP in-charges of states and party cells was declared on Friday, seven months after Nitin Gadkari took over as party chief.

While Ananth Kumar, who was appointed general secretary in-charge of Bihar earlier, has been given additional charge of Madhya Pradesh, Gadkari has not appointed any election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh which goes to polls in 2012. Being a big state, UP has got Narendra Singh Tomar as its in-charge and will have Karun Shukla and Radha Mohan Singh to assist him.

Laxman, who was in oblivion since he was caught on camera accepting cash in a sting operation, was given charge of Tamil Nadu to send across a message that BJP is wooing dalit voters as part of Gadkari's strategy to increase BJP's vote share by 10%, party sources said.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister B C Khanduri has been made overall in-charge of Tamil Nadu.

Varun Gandhi's appointment as election in-charge of Assam, which goes to polls next year and where the party's stakes are high, indicates an elevation in terms of importance within the party.

Another ex-Uttarakhand CM Bhagat Singh Koshiyari will be election in-charge of Jharkhand where the party feels polls may be held any time due to political instability.

However, many were surprised at the appointment of party vice-president Vinay Katiyar as poll in-charge for West Bengal. Interestingly, the overall charge of the state has been given to Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra. Polls are due in the state next year.

Yashwant Sinha (Punjab), Shanta Kumar (Karnataka), Balbir Punj (Gujarat), Narendra Singh Tomar (UP), Jagat Prakash Nadda (Chhattisgarh), Kalraj Mishra (Himachal Pradesh), Thawarchand Gehlot (Uttarakhand), Kaptan Singh Solanki (Rajasthan), Vijay Goel (Assam), Santosh Gangwar (Orissa) and Purushottam Rupala (Andhra Pradesh) are the other state in-charges.

Najma Heptullah has been given charge of Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will continue as in-charge of the party's All India Programmes and Tours.

Party treasurer Piyush Goel will be in-charge of `Friends of BJP'.

Actor-turned politician Hema Malini will head the cultural cell, Sukhada Pandey has given the education cell and Anil Dave will head the election research and analysis cell. Prakash Javadekar will be in-charge of the economic affairs cell and Satpal Jain of the legal cell.

BJP also named in-charges for its fronts. Karuna Shukla (women's wing), Dharmendra Pradhan (youth wing), Thawarchand Gehlot (SC cell), Narendra Singh Tomar (ST cell), Satpal Malik (Kisan cell) and J K Jain (Minority Morcha) were named in these positions.
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