Indian Express
Shimla: As BJP national president Nitin Gadkari named in-charge for various states, special attention came Himachal’s way...
Shimla: As BJP national president Nitin Gadkari named in-charge for various states, special attention came Himachal’s way...
... Kalraj Mishra was appointed the new in-charge of the state BJP unit. Mishra replaces Satya Pal Jain, a senior party leader from Chandigarh who held the charge for three years.
During Jain’s tenure BJP came back to power in the state with a clear majority in December 2007 Assembly polls and swept three of the four Lok Sabha seats in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Two other major bypoll victories were also registered by BJP during his tenure, including the Lok Sabha bypoll in 2008 when Anurag Thakur was elected as MP for the first time and 2009 bypoll on Rohru Assembly seat, which was re-captured by the BJP after a gap of three decades. ...
State BJP president Khimi Ram Sharma said, “The party went through a golden period under Jain.”
While, certain factions of the party criticised Jain for being soft on party issue and government coordination, the credit for bringing Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal faction on one platform during the Assembly election was also given to him. He had made headlines when he tried to define both the leaders as equally important by coining a new term, “Prem Kumar Dhumal sarkar ke mukhiya and Shanta Kumar parivar ke mukhiya (Dhumal is head of the government and Shanta Kumar is head of the party)”. ...
