HYDERABAD: The BJP State leadership is not seeing appointment of Sunil Bansal as the party’s in-charge of Telangana as a replacement of Tarun Chugh, but as a value addition.BJP State general secretary G Premender Reddy told Express that the party’s central leadership has not yet given any indication of Tarun Chugh being relieved from his responsibilities as in-charge.
“There is a possibility of a division of work between the two in-charges. It shows how much the central leadership is concentrating on Telangana. As of now, Tarun Chugh is still on his job and will be participating in BJP State president Bandi Sanjay’s ‘Praja Sangrama Yatra’ on August 12,” he said.
Bansal’s appointment as the in-charge of Telangana, West Bengal and Odisha is significant, as the saffron party has been rigorously trying to expand into earlier unexplored frontiers.After having turbulent relations with its alliance partners, and some of them like JD(U) parting ways with it, the BJP has realised the necessity to come to power on its own.
According to a senior functionary in the party, after the developments in Bihar, BJP has also realised that their alliance in Odisha with BJD which is presently rock-solid, may not stay that way after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s exit from politics.Though the party has been losing its seats in some States in the North, it has emerged as a potential alternative to the ruling parties in Telangana and West Bengal, where it wants to make up for the losses.
The UP experience
In this scenario, the party believes that a person like Sunil Bansal, who has proved his mettle as the party’s State (organising) secretary in Uttar Pradesh during the Assembly elections in 2017 and 2002, and had also ensured that the party got 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 Parliament elections, will be the right fit for handling the three States.
“He will certainly use the strategies employed in Uttar Pradesh in these States as well. The first priority of the central leadership is to stay in power at the Centre, and then to form governments in the States,” a party’s functionary said, on condition of anonymity.Tarun Chugh’s year-long stint has been well appreciated in the State, as the party has been aggressively fighting the ruling party under the leadership of BJP State president Bandi Sanjay.
Chugh may handle Punjab
However, as the party is losing ground in Punjab, the State to which Chugh belongs, there are indications that the central leadership may use more of his services there, as his constituency happens to be in Amritsar. As Chugh is also the in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, his presence close to those States is also being considered, according to sources.