Served BJP for 40 years, Rahul Sinha dropped in reshuffle

Kolkata: BJP leader Rahul Sinha on Saturday expressed his resentment over the new list of office-bearers and said that he will announce the future course of action after 12 days.

In a video message, Sinha said, “For 40 years I have served the BJP as a soldier since birth. I have to step down because a Trinamool Congress leader is coming. There can be nothing more unfortunate than this.”

“I will not say anything more on this. I don’t want say a thing in favour or against the reward that I have received from the party. Whatever I have to say, I will say in 10 to 12 days and decide my future course of action,” Sinha added.

Anupam Hazra, who replaced Sinha as general secretary was Trinamool MP from Bolpur since 2014. He was suspended by the party in January 2019 after which he joined the BJP and was fielded from Jadavpur seat in Kolkata.

He said: “Mr Sinha may have felt hurt and I will talk to him at earliest. There are ups and downs in one’s life. I am sure he will understand.”

Earlier in the day, BJP president JP Nadda announced his new team of office-bearers that saw some major inclusions such as Tejasvi Surya as chief of party’s youth wing while Ram Madhav, P Muralidhar Rao, Saroj Pande and Anil Jain were replaced as general secretaries.

The major revamp of party office bearers took place almost eight months after Nadda was elected as the party chief.

The new team has several news faces and attempts to strike a balance in terms of regional representation.

The list of 12 vice presidents has some new names with seven from the previous team having been dropped. The vice-presidents who have been dropped include party leaders Uma Bharti, Vinay Shastrabuddhe and Om Mathur.