New Delhi : Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Friday retained 19 incharge of state party units and appointed/reshuffled 17 others, apart from appointing incharge of seven party cells/morchas.
Among the new appointees were Kailash Vijayvargiya as incharge of West Bengal and Murlidhar Rao of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
Shah also appointed D. Purandeshwari Devi, a former union minister and daughter of actor-turned-politician N.T. Ramarao, as incharge of BJP Mahila Morcha. She resigned from the Congress in March to join the BJP.
The announcement of new responsibilities for the leaders came after Amit Shah’s meeting with office-bearers.
The most significant appointment is of general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya as ‘prabhari’ (incharge) of a poll-bound state like West Bengal. Vijayvargiya was recently appointed as general secretary.
Vijayvargiya replaces Sidharth Nath Singh, who has been given charge of Andhra Pradesh. S.N. Singh will however continue to work in West Bengal as co-incharge.
Shah gave charge of Punjab and Chandigarh to party vice president Prabhat Jha, while Shyam Jaju will look after Delhi, which has a government by the Aam Aadmi Party. Earlier, Jha was incharge of Delhi.
Chhattisgarh member of parliament and former president of the party’s women wing, Saroj Pandey, has been asked to take the responsibility of Maharashtra.
Newly appointed vice president Anil Jain has been given charge of Chhattisgarh along with Haryana.
BJP member of parliament from Punjab, Avinash Rai Khanna, has been assigned the responsibility of Rajasthan party affairs.
No changes have been made for the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Shah also reshuffled the incharge of the party’s different cells.
Apart from Murlidhar Rao of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and Purandeshwari Devi of the Mahila Morcha, BJP member of parliament Bhupendra Yadav would be in charge of the Scheduled Caste Morcha. Tribal leader Ramvichar Netam will be incharge of the Scheduled Tribe Morcha.
Satyapal Malik would be in charge of the Kisan Morcha and Sudha Yadav of the Other Backward Castes Morcha.