The Hindu : Kushabhau divested of U.P. charge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 02, 2002

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National

Kushabhau divested of U.P. charge

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 1. The first of several major steps to revamp the Bharatiya Janata Party was taken today by the party president, Jana Krishnamurthi, when he appointed five zonal `prabharis' to take charge of political affairs in a cluster of States.

The result was that the former party president, Kushabhau Thakre, who played a key role as the major domo of Uttar Pradesh affairs, has been given charge of the northeast, Assam, Bengal and Orissa. Significantly, none of these States is a key area for the BJP.

This is being seen as the direct result of the party's poor performance in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and is also indicative of Mr. Krishnamurthi trying to emerge from the shadows of his predecessor. Of course, the change could also be attributed to Mr. Thakre's poor health.

Some in the party also see this change as a sign of the growing clout of the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani's men — of late, Mr. Thakre was seen more as the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's favourite.

Kailashpati Mishra and Sanjay Joshi have emerged as the two new power centres in the party. Mr. Mishra has been given charge of the central zone comprising Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh. Chattisgarh and Uttaranchal. The responsibility for the key west zone, which includes Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan has been handed over to Mr. Joshi, the newest general secretary in the party. He was brought to the central party headquarters when Narendra Modi became the Gujarat Chief Minister.

V. Ramarao will look after the south zone, which includes Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, while Pyarelal Khandelwal has been given charge of Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir. Mr. Khandelwal has been all-India in-charge of elections.

At the last national executive committee meeting of the party in Goa, Mr. Advani had stated that soon there would be a re-shuffle of men between the party and the Government. The implication was that some Ministers would be asked to resign and given party work and others from the party could be inducted into the Government. This reshuffle is expected to take place after the ongoing budget session of Parliament comes to an end, some time later this month.

Prior to the executive committee meeting, Mr. Krishnamurthi had stated that he would revamp the party organisation and give specific charge and responsibility to a larger number of people in the party — responsibility would go with accountability. Today's "announcement" by the party indicated that Uttar Pradesh was taken away from Mr. Thakre's charge as he had failed to deliver.

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