BJP chief tweaks team, happy to retain old flock

BHOPAL: Seven months after his appointment as state BJP president, Nandkumar Singh Chouhan aka Nandu Bhaiyya, declared his team of office-bearers and working committee members on Saturday. Soon after his appointment, state BJP chief had explained, “Why would I change anyone from the existing team? It is an efficient unit and I would want to continue with them.”
Nandkumar Singh Chouhan did exactly that.Most of his team members are part of former state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar’s group with addition of a few members and filling-up of vacant positions. MP from Jhabua Dilip Singh Bhuria, former Rajya Sabha MP Raghunandan Sharma, MP from Jabalpur Rakesh Singh, MLA Usha Thakur, Anju Makhija, Anusuiya Uike, Vedprakash Sharma and Ajay Pratap Singh will continue as vice-presidents. Two new names have been added as vice-presidents in Chouhan’s team – former BJP media cell chief Vrijesh Lunawat and Manoranjan Mishra. RSS functionary Arvind Menon will continue to hold important organisational general secretary portfolio. Menon has been considered third-most important man in state BJP after chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state party chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan. Former MLA Dhruv Narayan Singh who was questioned in Shehla Masood murder case has been appointed as new member of the executive committee.
Three posts of state general secretaries have been lying vacant since assembly elections December 2013. Of four seats, only Vinod Gotiya continued while the others, including minister for women and child Maya Singh joined state cabinet. In addition to Gotiya, new state BJP general secretaries are Bansilal Gurjar, Arvind Bhadoria and Manohar Utwal.
Secretaries in state BJP are Ganesh Singh, Madan Mohan Gupta, Tapan Bhowmick, Padma Shukla, Rajo Malviya, Sampatiya Uike, Neeta Pateria, Sartendu Tiwari, Sandhya Rai and Vinod Panthi. Of the ten secretaries, six are women.
Party spokespersons Vijendra Singh Sisodia, Deepak Vijayvargiya, MLAs Vishwas Sarang and Rameshwar Sharma will continue to represent BJP before media. The new entrant is Babu Singh Raghuvanshi from Indore.
Nandkumar Chouhan also retained his predecessor Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s squad of television panelists for discussion. MP Prahlad Singh Patel, Rakesh Sharma, Govind Malu, Shailendra Sharma, Prakash Mirchandani, Shailendra Pradhan, Rajo Malviya, Rajneesh Agarwal, Sukhpreet Kaur, Shailendra Thakur and Raj Chadda will speak for the party on TV channels. The only new name added is Divya Nagpal Gupta, who is the daughter of party veteran Om Nagpal.