Marandi: Friend or foe?

Jamshedpur, May 31: The BJP party high command has given a ?free hand? to new organising state general secretary Ranjan Patel, a close friend of former senior BJP stalwart Babulal Marandi, to set the house in order and weather the blows that his friend has inflicted on the party.

Hailing from Orissa, Patel was the organising secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the BJP before being asked to shoulder the responsibility of invigorating the BJP unit in the state.

Patel?s primary task would be boost the morale of the rank and file of the party workers, which received a dent after the internecine squabbles of the party top bosses that reportedly sparked off Marandi?s resignation.

Patel and Marandi, incidentally, have been friends for long and served stints with the Sangh Parivar. The RSS pracharak, who is in mid 40s, today met senior party leaders at New Delhi, who briefed him about the ?task at hand? in the state.

?I shall be visiting Ranchi within the next one week,? Patel told The Telegraph over the telephone, expressing confidence that he will face no troubles whatsoever in strengthening the faction-ridden unit in the state.

And his mantra to perform his job would be to ?extend friendship to each party worker in the state so that he feels a part of a large family?, Patel claimed.

?I shall not give any opportunities to any of the party worker to hold any grievances against anyone in the party,? Patel said.

Acknowledging the face that he and Marandi were good friends for long, Patel candidly accepted that he would not mind meeting the former BJP leader after his arrival in Ranchi.

?There is absolutely no harm in meeting Babulalji and greeting him warmly. That is the culture of BJP,? Patel claimed.

State BJP leaders maintained that Patel is known for keeping an extremely low profile.

?He seldom interacts with the media. He is well-known in the party circles for working with different factions in tow. We are sure that he would be visiting the districts often to get a hang of the pulse in the party workers,? a senior state BJP leader said.

Besides, sources in the state BJP claimed that the party high command is pondering over options to clip the wings of the state BJP president Yadunath Pandey and form a four-member team to oversee the activities of the state unit of the party.

A large section of the state BJP leaders have reporetdly been annoyed with the manner in which Pandey led the party and some of them have even blamed him for weakening the party in the state.

?We have information that the party high command is seriously discussing a proposal to form a four-member team to oversee the activities of the party till the elections take place in October this year,? a source said.