New Delhi: With an eye on Uttar Pradesh and poll-bound Bihar, BJP on Friday made organisational changes and also announced for the first time formation of a separate wing for the Other Backward Castes, a politically crucial group which the saffron party has been wooing vigorously.
CR Patil, a Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat, and Delhi-based Pawan Sharma will be co-incharges of Bihar while general secretary Bhupendra Yadav remains in-charge of the state. BJP had recently made Union minister Ananth Kumar in-charge of the polls in the state where it is facing a tough challenge from Nitish-Lalu combine.
As many as five co-incharges have been appointed for Uttar Pradesh while General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, a close aide of party president Amit Shah and seen as a competent organisation man, is the new in-charge of West Bengal. Party's vice president Om Prakash Mathur remains incharge of Uttar Pradesh.
The party has worked hard to mend fences with TMC head and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Vijayvargiya's appointment is being seen as a step in this direction.
The announcement came following a lengthy meeting of the BJP's office-bearers headed by Shah where progress made by the party on organisational front was also reviewed.
The saffron party also formed a separate OBC Morcha and SP Singh Baghel, a backward leader from Uttar Pradesh, will be its head.
In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where caste is a key mobilising factor, OBCs play a crucial role and the saffron party has been working overtime to woo them away from regional satraps like Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Purandeshwari Devi, who was a minister in the UPA government and had left Congress to join BJP before Lok Sabha elections in 2014, has been made in-charge of 'Mahola Morcha (woman wing).
The appointments of state in-charges made today also filled in the vacancies caused by the shift of senior party leader JP Nadda from the organisation to the government and also allocated work to three new general secretaries and as many vice presidents besides four secretaries.
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