OP Dhankar is new Haryana BJP chief
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 19
BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday appointed former Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar as the party president of the State. The appointment of Dhankar is with immediate effect, a BJP communication said
Dhankar replaces former MLA Subhash Barala whose term has already ended.
The party was looking for a suitable replacement and several names were doing the rounds.
Sources say Dhankar’s name was finalised in a recent meeting between Nadda and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, in mind the caste and regional requirements of the BJP.
Notably, despite a clean sweep in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a couple of months later in the Assembly elections, the BJP ended six short of the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly with several senior leaders and ministers, including Dhankar and Barala, losing their seats.
Though Barala also belongs to the community, Dhankar comes from the area considered as the main Jat heartland (Rohtak, Jhajjar Sonipat), which is also the stronghold of Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Besides, by-polls to the Baroda Assembly, a part of the Sonepat Parliamentary seat, are also due shortly.
Incidentally, Hooda has welcomed Dhankar’s appointment.
“It was unlikely that a ‘non Jat’ would have been selected for the post,” the sources said in response to speculations about the names of some “non Jat” leaders doing the rounds in the context. With the CM being a “non-Jat” the party had to opt for a “Jat” president to keep its caste equations balanced, they say.
Notably, names of three “Jat” leaders, former Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, Barala and Dhankar, were also considered for the Rajya Sabha earlier this year but none of them got the coveted ticket, causing much heartburn in the community.
Dhankar held several key portfolios in the first term of CM Khattar. He has also held important positions in the organisation at the State and the national level, including that of chief of the BJP Kisan Morcha.
