BJP national president Nitin Nabin announced the new national team on Monday, seven months after assuming the responsibility.
The name of Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak is also in this list, who had left Aam Aadmi Party and joined BJP along with other MPs including Raghav Chadha in April itself.
The name of Dr. Sandeep Pathak from Delhi is included in the list of 16 new National Secretaries of BJP. However, many people are expressing surprise at the absence of Raghav Chadha's name in the new BJP team.
When the names were announced, Sandeep Pathak expressed gratitude to the top leadership and wrote on
Sandeep Pathak remained in the core team of Aam Aadmi Party for the last decade and was considered the main election strategist of the party. His role is considered important in the victory of Aam Aadmi Party in the Punjab Assembly elections 2022.
He held a very important post in the Aam Aadmi Party - General Secretary of the Political Affairs Committee. Even after joining BJP, he was given an important responsibility.
Political analysts believe that by making him a national minister, BJP has expressed confidence in his ability.
Why did Sandeep Pathak get an important post?
Last April, Raghav Chadha had announced that 'more than two-thirds of the Aam Aadmi Party MPs in the Rajya Sabha have merged with the BJP.'
In the beginning of April itself, Aam Aadmi Party had given the responsibility of deputy leader of the party in Rajya Sabha to Ashok Kumar Mittal in place of Raghav Chadha. It was surprising when the name of Ashok Kumar Mittal was also among the seven MPs who separated from the party along with Raghav Chadha.
But the biggest blow to the Aam Aadmi Party was considered to be the change of Sandeep Pathak because he was considered the 'brain' of the party's election strategy.
Political analysts say that Sandeep Pathak can be the most effective person for BJP and the top leadership must have already known about this.
Senior journalist Ashutosh told BBC News Hindi, "The biggest specialty of Sandeep Pathak is that he works well behind the scenes in the organization. At one time, he became the second leader in the Aam Aadmi Party after Arvind Kejriwal. Because he understood the organization very clearly and implemented Kejriwal's vision in Punjab and made efforts in other places as well."
He says, "It is because of his ability that BJP gave him important responsibility in the work of the organization."
But there is another specialty which makes Sandeep Pathak's claim even stronger and that is his ability to sense the pulse of the public on the ground.
It is said that during his visit to the recently held Bankipur assembly by-election in Bihar, Sandeep Pathak had expressed the fear of defeat of the BJP candidate.
Ashutosh says, "The matter of Bankipur is being told recently, but I remember an incident, of which I have been a witness. At that time, I was in the Aam Aadmi Party. In the year 2017, there were Punjab assembly elections and the party was convinced that it was going to win and it was going to get 80 to 90 seats. All the opinion polls were also pointing in the same direction. At that time, Sandeep Pathak had warned on the basis of his ground report that the party was going to win the elections. "Not going to win."
"This created a lot of uneasiness in the Aam Aadmi Party, but when the results came and what he said was proved true, Sandeep Pathak rose rapidly within the party. Later he also became in-charge of Punjab and worked to strengthen the organization there."
However, many people are also apprehensive that if a person who did politics against a party for 10 years and now joins it, will the work done at the grassroots level, organizational structure and acceptance among the people remain the same as before?
But Ashutosh says that in today's time ideology has no role in changing parties. It does not have much impact on the ground, otherwise the defunct leaders would have ceased to exist.
He says, "Anyway, Sandeep Pathak is not known for his ideology. He was a professor at IIT Delhi, studied at Oxford-Cambridge. He is mainly a man of science and as is the specialty of such people, if given a project, he will complete it with all his might. And secondly, he is very honest, there is no blemish on him and even today he lives like an ordinary middle class family."
This was confirmed by Sandeep Pathak himself in an interview in 2022. He had said that his mind 'works like a scientist and not like a politician.'
Ashutosh says, "BJP is not like other parties, it is an organization and Sandeep Pathak's nature is also basically organizational. So this can be a good combination."
Senior journalist and political analyst Vinod Sharma also believes that Sandeep Pathak's ability makes him more useful for BJP.
But Raghav Chadha has not got any important responsibility yet, under whose leadership two-thirds of the Rajya Sabha MPs of Aam Aadmi Party had left and joined BJP.
Although both people believe that Raghav Chaddha may get some important responsibility in the future, but the question before BJP is as to what usefulness Raghav Chaddha can have.
Will Raghav Chaddha get some important responsibility?
Senior journalist and political analyst Vinod Sharma told BBC News Hindi, "Raghav Chaddha had become a controversial face in his last days in the Aam Aadmi Party. The way he raised issues in the Rajya Sabha also started giving some kind of indication."
Actually, Raghav Chadha's name had come up in the alleged scam in Delhi Jal Board and before joining BJP, many BJP leaders had demanded his arrest.
On Tuesday, former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain was arrested in a corruption case related to alleged irregularities in the tender process of Delhi Jal Board's sewage treatment plant (STP) projects. Along with him, four other accused were sent to Tihar Jail in judicial custody for 14 days.
While going to appear in the court, Satyendar Jain told reporters, "All this is happening because of the upcoming Punjab elections."
After this, Aam Aadmi Party targeted Raghav Chadha.
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said, "This case is of the time when Satyendar Jain was already in jail in another case. And at that time Delhi BJP was saying that Raghav Chadha carried out the Jal Board scam by sitting on the chair of Rajendra Nagar. So did the ACB (Anti-Corruption Branch) go there?"
Vinod Sharma says, "Punjab assembly elections are about to come. If BJP gives any important responsibility to Raghav Chadha, especially in Punjab, then Aam Aadmi Party will make it an issue. And will attack continuously. Aam Aadmi Party is the ruling party in Punjab and it will get an issue while sitting."
In fact, when Raghav Chadha left Aam Aadmi Party along with other MPs, AAP in Punjab accused him of betrayal and launched a campaign against those MPs.
Vinod Sharma says, "His politics is utilitarian. But the usefulness of Raghav Chadha has become very limited, in fact it has ended. I may be wrong but I think that with the end of the tenure of Rajya Sabha, Raghav Chadha's politics will also go into decline."
However, there is speculation in some sections of the media that Raghav Chadha may be given a place during the cabinet reshuffle at the Centre.
But Vinod Sharma says, "If this happens, then he will campaign in Punjab against the same government of which he was a part for many years and also worked behind the scenes. Everyone there knows him."
Senior journalist Ashutosh says that nothing can be said about Raghav Chadha's political future yet, "Like Sandeep Pathak, he is also young. It is possible that he too may get some responsibility."
What is the meaning of reshuffle in BJP's national team?
A major reshuffle has been made in the BJP national team. At least five old general secretaries did not get a place in the new team.
A major change was made in the party's IT and social media department and Amit Malviya, who held this responsibility for almost 11 years, was removed and Deepak Mhaske was given the responsibility in his place.
However, the change in the social media team was seen by many analysts as a change in the party's digital strategy following the recent Gen Z protests.
There is also a lot of discussion about the faces included from Uttar Pradesh. Out of the 10 names in the UP team, two names are much talked about, one is former Union Minister Smriti Irani and the other is Vinod Tawde, an influential leader from Maharashtra. This is being linked to the strategy of the upcoming UP assembly elections.
Former National General Secretary Ram Madhav has returned this time as National Vice President. In 2020, he was removed from the post of General Secretary.
Ashutosh says that one should not expect any radical change from the reshuffle in the team, "because the party is run by only two people. PM Modi's vision and Amit Shah's strategy and organizational ability."
Vinod Sharma seems to agree with him. He says, "You cannot improve captaincy by changing the team."
