Sunil Jakhar missing in action, seniority war erupts as BJP appoints in-charges for bypoll to 4 assemblies

With Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Sunil Jakhar distancing himself from party affairs, the state unit on Friday appointed in-charges and co-in-charges for the four assembly seats -- Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal, and Barnala—that are set to witness bypolls soon.

The seats fell vacant after MLAs from these constituencies were elected to the Lok Sabha.

While the party has given preference to old timers and grassroots leaders, a section of the party is upset over their “seniority being ignored”.

According to the list issued by state BJP headquarters, senior leader Avinash Rai Khanna has been appointed in-charge of the Gidderbaha seat, while Dayal Sodhi has been named the co-in-charge.

Former minister and ex-MLA Manoranjan Kalia will be in-charge of the Barnala assembly seat while party leader Jagmohan Singh Raju will be the co-in-charge.

Shwait Malik, former Punjab BJP chief, will oversee the Chabbewal (reserved) assembly seat as in-charge and will be supported by party leader Parminder Brar as the co-in-charge.

For Dera Baba Nanak assembly, former state BJP chief and Pathankot MLA Ashwani Sharma is the in-charge and party general secretary and former Jalandhar mayor Rakesh Rathour is the co-in-charge.

Except Parminder Brar, all those appointed are old timers and home-grown leaders.

Resentment over mandal appointments

Interestingly, senior leaders who have come from other parties to join the BJP in the past two years, have also been included in the list as incharges and co-incharges of mandals (block committees), a move which has not gone down well among old timers.

According to senior BJP leaders, in a few instances, even the hierarchy within the party was bypassed.

In the mandals falling under the Gidderbaha assembly, former Congress MLA and state unit secretary Harjot Singh Kamal has been appointed coordinator of Gidderbaha (urban) mandal and whereas senior vice-president Mona Jaiswal has been appointed co-coordinator.

Former Congress MLA and party’s national executive member, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi was named coordinator of Kot Bhai mandal while Durgesh Sharma is the co-coordinator.

In Doda mandal, former MLA Harminder Singh Jassi will be the coordinator and state secretary Shivraj Chaudhary will be the co-coordinator.

Former MLA Saroop Chand Singla will be the coordinator of Gurusar mandal and Vandana Sangwan, who had contested 2022-assembly polls unsuccessfully from Balluana segment, will be co-coordinator; Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal will be the coordinator of Kotli Ablu mandal and Rajesh Pathela will be the co-coordinator.

In mandals falling under Barnala assembly, Jagdeep Singh Nakai will be coordinator and Jatinder Mittal will be co-coordinator in Barnala East mandal. Mandal Handiyaya will have Mangat Rai Bansal as coordinator and Daaman Thind Bajwa as co-coordinator.

“Former MLA Arvind Khanna has been made coordinator for Dhannula and Jiwan Garg, former general secretary of the state unit has been made co-coordinator. Both are senior leaders of the state unit but have been restricted to block levels. Similarly, party has appointed Sheetal Angural as coordinator of Aehrana Kalan mandal whereas Rajesh Bagha, a senior Dalit face of the party and vice-president, will be the co-coordinator,” rued a senior state leader.

Ex-MP Sushil Kumar Rinku will be the coordinator and Anil Sacchar will be the co-coordinator of Bham mandal in Chabbewal.

Similarly, in the mandals falling under Dera Baba Nanak, Ashwani Sekri will be the coordinator and Manjit Singh Rai will be the co-coordinator of Dera Baba Nanak mandal, while Fatehjang Bajwa will be the coordinator and Rakesh Sharma will be the co-coordinator of Bakshiwal mandal.

Amid murmurs within the party, an official press statement of the party claimed that this strategic move aims to strengthen the party’s organisational structure and ensure robust coordination at the grassroots level of all the 18 mandals of these four constituencies.

These are the first appointments made by the party in absence of Jakhar who has announced not to attend any party meetings, seeking his removal as state BJP chief. The list issued on Friday doesn’t even have any signatures.

It is learnt that state organisational secretary Mantri Shrinivasullu is the key man behind these appointments.

State affairs incharge, Vijay Rupani, was not available for comments despite repeated attempts.