PATNA: With Nityanand Rai joining Union council of ministers, all eyes are now on who will be the next president of the BJP’s state unit. Rai, who won from Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency, has taken over as Union minister of state for home affairs.
Three names doing the rounds for the post are state general secretary of the party Rajendra Singh, state vice-president Devesh Kumar and MLC Rajneesh Kumar. “The field is open for anyone in the party. The surprise element cannot be ruled out,” a state BJP functionary said.
Singh, who has been close to the RSS, had unsuccessfully contested the Dinara assembly seat in Rohtas district in 2015. Devesh has been the incharge of the party’s state headquarters and was the link between the central and state leaderships during the recently concluded parliamentary elections. Besides, he was an aspirant for the ticket to contest the 2015 assembly elections from Muzaffarpur district, but ultimately the opportunity eluded him.
Rajneesh was considered the probable candidate to give fight to former JNUSU president and CPI nominee at Begusarai Kanhaiya Kumar, if Union minister Giriraj Singh was asked by the central leadership to contest the parliamentary election from Nawada that he represented.
Even as some names have started doing the rounds for the post of state BJP president, the party will begin the process of choosing its state chief only after Rai resigns from the post.
Political observers said the national leadership of BJP would be very calculating with ‘door drishti (circumspection and long-term approach)’ in choosing the next state president because of the ‘separate line’ that CM Nitish Kumar has adopted after his party was denied two cabinet berths and a minister of state post in the Union council of ministers. The general thinking is that the BJP national brass might choose a leader belonging to the extremely backward caste (EBC) group for the post.
However, a senior BJP leader summarily rejected this line of thinking. “The party will only give weightage to the ability and energy level of the aspirants. The next state chief should be the one who can take all other people in the organization along in view of the assembly elections due next year,” he said.
Three names doing the rounds for the post are state general secretary of the party Rajendra Singh, state vice-president Devesh Kumar and MLC Rajneesh Kumar. “The field is open for anyone in the party. The surprise element cannot be ruled out,” a state BJP functionary said.
Singh, who has been close to the RSS, had unsuccessfully contested the Dinara assembly seat in Rohtas district in 2015. Devesh has been the incharge of the party’s state headquarters and was the link between the central and state leaderships during the recently concluded parliamentary elections. Besides, he was an aspirant for the ticket to contest the 2015 assembly elections from Muzaffarpur district, but ultimately the opportunity eluded him.
Rajneesh was considered the probable candidate to give fight to former JNUSU president and CPI nominee at Begusarai Kanhaiya Kumar, if Union minister Giriraj Singh was asked by the central leadership to contest the parliamentary election from Nawada that he represented.
Even as some names have started doing the rounds for the post of state BJP president, the party will begin the process of choosing its state chief only after Rai resigns from the post.
Political observers said the national leadership of BJP would be very calculating with ‘door drishti (circumspection and long-term approach)’ in choosing the next state president because of the ‘separate line’ that CM Nitish Kumar has adopted after his party was denied two cabinet berths and a minister of state post in the Union council of ministers. The general thinking is that the BJP national brass might choose a leader belonging to the extremely backward caste (EBC) group for the post.
However, a senior BJP leader summarily rejected this line of thinking. “The party will only give weightage to the ability and energy level of the aspirants. The next state chief should be the one who can take all other people in the organization along in view of the assembly elections due next year,” he said.
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