Eye on Maharashtra, BJP promotes Tawde in central team

NEW DELHI:  Seeking to beef up its Maharashtra leadership, the BJP on Sunday promoted former state minister Vinod Tawde to the position of the party’s national general secretary. Coming after inclusion of Narayan Rane in the Union Cabinet, Tawde’s elevation is seen as the party’s strategy to broad base its Maharashtra leadership to boost prospects for going solo in future state elections.

Tawde fills the vacancy in the position of general secretary after senior party leader Bhupender Yadav was drafted in the Union Cabinet earlier. Tawde, who in the past has served as a minister in the state government, had earlier been included in the national office bearers’ team as national secretary 
of the party.  

Within Maharashtra unit of the BJP, Tawde is seen to be a political heavyweight having held key positions in the organisation. He’s also associated with a BJP sympathiser think tank Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, which had recently organised a conclave in the national capital to deliberate on two decades of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the public service.  

The BJP by all accounts appears looking ahead to go solo in Maharashtra politics after one of its oldest allies Shiv Sena quit the NDA to join hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the government despite contesting the state Assembly elections as a pre-poll alliance with the saffron outfit.   

The BJP drafted Rituraj Singh, son of the party’s former Rajya Sabha MP and influential businessman R K Sinha, in the national office bearers’ team as the national secretary. Also, the BJP inducted former Ranchi mayor  Asha Lakra, a tribal leader, as the national secretary of the party.  

Former IPS officer Bharti Ghosh along with Shehzad Poonawal are in the team of spokespersons.   
The BJP had previously brought in its former West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh as the party’s vice president to fill the vacancy after the induction of Annapurna Devi in the Union Council of Ministers. 
However, the BJP is yet to fill multiple vacancies in the Parliamentary Board of BJP.