Bhopal: The BJP has strengthened its organisational setup in Madhya Pradesh with two key appointments, naming former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb as the party’s state in-charge and experienced RSS campaigner Chandrashekhar as state general secretary (organisation).
The appointments come at a politically significant juncture for the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh, with panchayat and urban local body elections expected in June-July 2027, followed by the next Assembly election in 2028-end.
Chandrashekhar’s appointment, announced on Thursday, fills the crucial post of state general secretary (organisation) nearly eight months after it fell vacant following Hitanand’s return to the RSS. Hitanand was subsequently assigned the responsibility of regional co-intellectual chief for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, with Jabalpur as his headquarters.
Hailing from Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district in Bundelkhand region, a full-time RSS pracharak with extensive organisational experience, Chandrashekhar began handling BJP responsibilities in home state UP in 2014. He was assigned the organisational charge of the Kashi region, which then comprised 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, including Varanasi, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested for the first time that year. The BJP won 13 of the 14 seats in the region.
In 2017, Chandrashekhar was moved to Rajasthan as the state BJP’s general secretary (organisation), taking charge of a post that had remained vacant for several years. He remained in the position until early 2024 and was subsequently associated with organisational responsibilities in Telangana.
His Rajasthan tenure placed him at the centre of the party’s organisational structure during a politically important period. The BJP won the 2023 Assembly election in the state, and Chandrashekhar was widely regarded as an important organisational functionary during the campaign.
At the same time, his tenure in Rajasthan coincided with internal debates over organisational restructuring, leadership equations and candidate selection. Reports from the state had highlighted tensions among different sections of the BJP over changes in the party organisation and the balance between the central leadership and established regional leaders.
His tenure also coincided with the replacement of Satish Poonia by CP Joshi as state BJP president. The organisational changes generated resentment among sections of the party, particularly supporters of leaders who felt sidelined by decisions taken by the central and state leaderships.
Candidate selection ahead of the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly election also exposed tensions within the organisation, with protests by ticket aspirants and reports of dissatisfaction among some grassroots leaders. These developments reflected internal political contestation within the state unit during an election year.
In early January 2024, the party suffered a high-profile electoral embarrassment in the Karanpur assembly by-election, where BJP candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT lost despite being pre-emptively sworn in as a state minister. Internal party leaks reportedly indicated the central command was deeply displeased with how the local organizational machinery handled the campaign. This defeat reportedly accelerated Chandrashekhar’s requested reassignment out of the state to Telangana in January 2024.
Chandrashekhar’s return to a major state organisational assignment now puts him in charge of the BJP’s organisational apparatus in Madhya Pradesh, where the general secretary (organisation) traditionally serves as a key link between the party structure and the government.
The appointment came a day after the BJP central leadership named Biplab Kumar Deb as the party’s new in-charge for Madhya Pradesh and ex-MP Rekha Verma as co-in-charge. The appointments were part of a wider organisational reshuffle by the BJP national leadership.
Deb, who served as Tripura chief minister from 2018 to 2022, before becoming chief minister, had reportedly worked in Madhya Pradesh’s Vindhya region in an organisational capacity, including as assistant/PA to Satna MP Ganesh Singh.
Deb is scheduled to visit Bhopal on September 30 for a two-day programme, during which he is expected to meet state BJP office-bearers and discuss organisational matters. The initial meetings are likely to be largely introductory, given that this will be his first visit to the state after receiving the new assignment. He is expected to return to Delhi on October 1.
The simultaneous appointment of a new state in-charge and a new organisational general secretary gives the BJP a fresh central organisational team in Madhya Pradesh. The two positions have distinct responsibilities but are closely connected in coordinating the party’s political and organisational functioning.
The changes also assume significance against the backdrop of unconfirmed reports and rumours of differences between chief minister Dr Mohan Yadav and state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal. Both leaders and the party, however, have publicly projected unity, even while speculation about their internal equations has continued to circulate in regional political circles.
The organisational leadership could also become important if the BJP undertakes a cabinet reshuffle in the coming months. Any such exercise would involve political as well as organisational considerations, making coordination between the government, state unit and central leadership significant.
For Chandrashekhar and Deb, however, the first major organisational test in Madhya Pradesh is likely to come with the 2027 panchayat and urban local body elections. Those polls will provide the first major statewide electoral exercise through which the newly constituted organisational team will have to coordinate the party’s grassroots machinery.
The appointments therefore mark more than the filling of vacant organisational positions. They put two experienced BJP functionaries into key roles as the party begins preparing its organisational apparatus for the next electoral cycle in Madhya Pradesh.