NEW DELHI, NOV 7: The BJP's organisational elections will begin in the first week of January and conclude by May-end with the election of a new national president. The present BJP chief, Kushabhau Thakre, has refused to go for a second term, citing health reasons. The schedule for the organisational elections was drawn up by the party's national executive that ended here yesterday.Senior vice president Jana Krishnamurthy, general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj are being considered for the top slot, sources said. According to Venkaiah Naidu, the organisational polls will be conducted over such a long period to enable the various district and state units conduct a fresh membership drive before the polls.In keeping with its one-man-one-post policy, the BJP has, meanwhile, replaced three state presidents and a frontal organisational chief who were inducted into the Union Cabinet last month.Manmohal Samal, a national executive member, replaces Juel Oram as the OrissaBJP chief while West Bengal unit chief Tapan Sikdar has been replaced by Ashim Ghosh. AP BJP president Vidyasagar Rao has been replaced by Ch Ramchandra Reddy, a former national party vice-president, Naidu said on FridayThe party has replaced its Schedules Caste Morcha chief Munni Lal with Ramnath Kovid, a national executive member from UP. The party is yet to find a substitute for Farmers' Cell president Hukum Deo Narain Yadav who was appointed Minister of State for Agriculture. They have also not found replacements for two vice-presidents Sunder Lal Patwa and Bangaru Laxman a general secretary, Sumitra Mahajan, and two secretaries who have been inducted into the Vajpayee cabinet.
