MP BJP chief Khandelwal forms organisational team; several from previous set up dropped

Bhopal, Oct 23 (PTI) More than three months after assuming office, Madhya Pradesh BJP president Hemant Khandelwal on Thursday appointed party office bearers as well as chiefs of frontal organisations, in the process dropping several members from his predecessor Vishnu Dutt Sharma's team.

Some from the previous set up were retained and promoted, with the reshuffle also seeing attempts to maintain the caste balance.

Seven women have been included in the new team, comprising one general secretary, two vice presidents, and four secretaries.

Khandelwal, who assumed the post in July, has appointed nine vice presidents, four general secretaries, and nine secretaries on his team, apart from chiefs of Kisan Morcha, Scheduled Caste Morcha, Scheduled Tribe Morcha, and Backward Class Morcha.

He has, additionally, appointed treasurer, office secretary and media in-charge.

Rahul Kothari and Lata Wankhede, who served as secretaries during Sharma's presidency, have been made general secretaries along with Rajya Sabha members Sumer Singh Solanki and Gaurav Randive.

Kavita Patidar, Bhagwan Das Sabnani, Harishankar Khatik, Ranbir Singh Rawat, and Shardendu Tiwari were general secretaries in Sharma's team.

Rawat has been appointed vice-president in the new team, while Kantidev Singh, Prabhuram Chaudhary, Shailendra Barua, Manisha Singh, Dr Nandita Pathak, Surendra Sharma, Nishant Khare, and Prabhulal Jatav have been made vice-presidents.

MPs Alok Sharma, Sumitra Valmik, Chaudhary Mukesh Singh, Seema Singh Jadon, Jitu Jirati, and Chintamani Malviya, who served as vice-presidents in the previous team, have not found a place in Khandelwal's set up.

Ashish Usha Agarwal has been retained as media in-charge, while Shyam Mahajan has been appointed as office secretary in place of Raghavendra Sharma. Akhilesh Jain has been retained as treasurer. Mahajan was the vice president in the previous team.

Rajneesh Agarwal, Lokendra Parashar, Jaideep Patel, Kshitij Bhatt, Sangeeta Soni, Rajendra Singh, Archana Singh, Rajo Malviya, and Babita Parmar have been appointed as secretaries.

Most of these leaders were also secretaries in Sharma's team, but some like Prabhudayal Kushwaha, Rajesh Pandey, Manisha Singh, Ashish Dubey, and Nandini Maravi have been dropped.

Jaipal Singh Chavda has been appointed president of Kisan Morcha, Bhagwan Singh Parmar as chief of SC Morcha, Pankaj Tekam of ST Morcha, and Pawan Patidar of Backward Classes Morcha.

BJP sources said before announcing his team, Khandelwal held discussions with senior party leaders, including Organisation General Secretary Hitanand Sharma and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.

They said the names of the new office bearers were announced after receiving the green light from BJP national president J P Nadda.

"I have full faith that your energy, hard work, loyalty, experience, and commitment will prove helpful in further strengthening the organisation in Madhya Pradesh and in taking the policies of the BJP's double-engine government to the people," Khandelwal said in a post on X. PTI BNS MAS BNM