The AAP has undertaken an organisational shuffle that focuses on promoting young, educated and upper-caste leaders in Delhi and putting Punjab under greater scrutiny.
On Friday, the party named former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj as president of its Delhi unit and senior leader Manish Sisodia as its in-charge for Punjab, the only state where the AAP is in power.
Bharadwaj is a former minister and an IT professional who lost his seat in the Delhi Assembly polls.
Gopal Rai, who was booted out as the party’s Delhi unit chief following the Assembly poll debacle, has been named the in-charge of the party’s Gujarat unit where the AAP has four MLAs.
Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has been made the in-charge of Punjab while the party’s national general secretary (organisation) and parliamentarian Sandeep Pathak has been given charge of his home state Chhattisgarh.
Party sources said Pathak’s role as organisational head would largely be taken up by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal.
“Pathak’s strategy of data-driven political mobilisation has ended. He has been sidelined for the time being as he antagonised several leaders when he was given a free run in planning for the Delhi polls…. Manish getting Punjab implies that Arvindji will manage the state directly. The post involves negotiations with donors and it requires someone of Manish’s stature,” a source said.
An AAP leader said: “Arvindji prefers to project educated, relatively young, upper-caste leaders for Delhi like Atishi and Bharadwaj. We should ideally have a Dalit and a Muslim as co-conveners of the Delhi unit as both communities have stuck to the party even in its defeat."