'Guruvayur pracharak' Arvind Menon appointed Telangana BJP co-incharge

HYDERABAD: After Sunil Bansal and Tarun Chug, BJP on Friday dispatched another Sangh pointsman, Arvind Menon, to Telangana to firm up the cadre in the state in the run-up to the high-stakes assembly polls next year.
The pracharak from Guruvayur, known to be close to Union home minister Amit Shah, has been appointed co-in charge of BJP's Telangana affairs.
Bansal, who's party national general secretary, was deputed as organizing affairs in charge, and Tarun Chugh, another national general secretary, will continue to be at helm of party affairs in Telangana. The duo of Bansal and Chugh are Shah acolytes.
Though there were enough hints on Menon's Telangana assignment during BJP's national executive meeting at Hyderabad in July, it was made official on Friday. "BJP's Mission Telangana is in the hands of home minister Amit Shah with his three confidants taking charge of party affairs. Meticulous planning is being done to win the next assembly election," a party leader said.
Arvind Menon, who was instrumental in strengthening the party at the grassroots in West Bengal, was a RSS worker who later joined BJP. He worked hard to ensure victory for the party in Bihar in 2014 and played a stellar role to help BJP storm to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
Menon, who speaks fluent Bengali, was sent to West Bengal before assembly polls, where the party didn't even have polling booth committees, and BJP did well. Menon did his post-graduation from Banaras Hindu University.