Satish Punia, close to RSS, is new Rajasthan BJP chief

New Delhi: In a signal to former Rajasthan chief minister and senior BJP leader, Vasundhara Raje, the BJP high command on Saturday appointed her former associate and a Jat leader, Satish Punia, as the state unit chief. A sitting MLA from Amber Assembly seat and considered close to the RSS, Mr Punia belongs to the community, which is considered close to the Congress in the desert state. The BJP also appointed its MP from Paschim Champaran, Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, as the Bihar unit chief. While Mr Punia succeeded Madan Lal Saini, who passed away earlier this year, Dr Jaiswal succeeded Mangal Pandey, who is now a state minister. The party leadership also appointed Ajay Kumar as the general secretary (organisation) of its Uttarakhand unit. He succeeds Sanjay Kumar, who had to quit over a controversy.

Sources disclosed that Mr Punia’s name was one of the three names sent by the state leadership and the BJP top brass found it appropriate to give the post to the Jat leader, who has a non-controversial image. He was considered close to Ms Raje, who herself was lobbying for the post, till he lost the 2013 Assembly polls. Despite her efforts to remain active in the state politics, the BJP top brass’s decision to accomodate her in party national president Amit Shah’s team as a vice president along with two other former chief ministers — Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chattisgarh’s Raman Singh — was an indication that the top brass is not in favour of the three former chief ministers to not actively engage in the politics of respective states.

The newly appointed Bihar unit chief of the party, Dr Jaiswal, is considered a moderate face and has a non-controversial image. Bihar is scheduled to go to polls by the end of this year.