BJP appoints B L Santosh as National Gen Sec Organisation

'BJP National president Amit Shah has appointed B L Santosh, Joint Secretary Organisation as National General Secretary Organisation of the party,' an official statement said here.

This appointment comes into immediate effect, it stated.

Santosh, an engineer, started as Pracharak in June 1993 and rose to work in various district positions.

He was State General secretary (Org) Karnataka for eight years since 2006 and National Joint Secretary (Org) since 2014, and toured southern parts of the country.

He has interests in reading on various subjects and article writing.

The BJP on Saturday late evening has said that party's Organisational General Secretary Ram Lal has "voluntarily opted out" of his responsibility in the saffron party and would be going back to the parent organisation RSS.

"After 13 years at the helm as BJP’s GS (Org), Shri Ramlal ji has voluntarily opted out of his responsibility," tweeted BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya.

"It is not often that people express desire to move on when the organisation is in ascendency. But then that is the value RSS instils. I wish him best in his new role," Mr Malviya has written and also tagged a hand written letter written by Ram Lal on July 5 to BJP national president Amit Shah to relieve him.

Authoritative sources has said the decision, described as a 'routine' exercise, to bring back Ram Lal to the RSS was taken at the ‘Prantha Pracharak Baithak’ of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh at Vijaywada.

Ram Lal, one of the longest-serving Bharatiya Janata Party general secretaries and in charge of Organisation, will be in the executive committee of the Sangh Parivar fountainhead and has been also appointed as ‘Akhil

Bharatiya Sahsampark Pramukh’ - the co-convenor of RSS public relations wing.

Speculations were that V Satish, senior most among four joint general secretaries in charge Organisation in the BJP, will replace Mr Lal.

BJP General Secretary Organisation's post is often regarded as second most powerful post after the party chief and is essentially a link between the party and the RSS.

RSS nominates senior 'pracharak' for the key post and in the past the likes of K N Govindacharya, Narendra Modi, Sanjay Joshi and Sundar Singh Bhandari have held the coveted post.

Ram Lal's tenure had been quite long - 13 years - but there there has not been much controversy as he ensured a smooth link between the BJP brass, especially the presidents - the likes of Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah - and the RSS high command and its other wings.