HP BJP president elections postponed to Nov 18, 19

Shimla, Nov 9 (UNI) Organisational elections for the post of BJP President of the Himachal Pradesh unit have been postponed to November 18 and 19 following no consensus on the candidate after two days of consultations among senior state and central leaders, party sources said today.

The announcement of the state unit of the party was likely tomorrow after all senior state party leaders were summoned to Delhi for consultations with the high command.

However, following two days of confabulations between the leaders, the party decided to postpone the elections to November 18 and 19.

The sources said despite one to one talks between prominent state leaders, including former Union Minister Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister P K Dhumal, former Speaker Radha Raman Shashtri, former Minister J P Nadda state party president Suresh Bhardwaj and party general secretary Sanjay Joshi, vice President Bal Apte Sahib Singh Verma, incharge organisational affairs for Himachal, there was no unanimity on any name.

''We were expecting high command to announce the name of consensus candidate, but instead it postponed the elections,'' a senior leader, requesting anonymity told UNI here.

Names of senior leaders like Radha Raman Shashtri, former Rajya Sabha Member, Kripal Parmar, Kushi Ram Balnatah, K D Dharmani, J P Nadda, Ram Swaroop Sharma, Jai Ram Thakur and other leaders were discussed, he said.

He said the party high command had provided more time to the state leaders to arrive at a consensus on any leader since divisions within the party was causing damage to it.

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