By IANS,
New Delhi : In the first step towards an organisational shake-up after the poll debacle, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday got its party chiefs in Haryana and Rajasthan to step down.
In the April-May elections, the party’s overall tally came down to 116 seats from 138 it had won in 2004. It suffered unexpected losses in Rajasthan and Haryana.
In Rajasthan, the BJP got only four seats of the total 25, in contrast to 21 it had won in 2004.
In Haryana, it was completely wiped out along with its alliance partner Indian National Lok Dal. Both parties had contested five seats each. In the 2004 polls, the BJP had won one seat in the state.
Rajasthan BJP chief Om Mathur was replaced by Arun Chaturvedi, who was the state unit vice-president and spokesperson, while in Haryana, Atmaprakash Manchanda made way for Krishnapal Gujjar, a former minister.
Besides the two, party president Rajnath Singh named Khimi Ram as the new Himachal Pradesh unit chief after the incumbent Jairam Thakur was made a minister in the BJP-ruled state.
A party statement said Thakur quit the post in keeping with the one-man one-post principle. Khimi Ram is a former deputy speaker of the state assembly.