Shimla: Former Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Rajiv Bindal was re-elected as Himachal Pradesh BJP president for the third time on Tuesday.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh declared Bindal elected unopposed in the presence of the party’s top leaders and hundreds of workers who had reached Shimla.
Bindal, 70, securing his third term was a foregone conclusion the moment he was declared the consensus candidate. He was the sole contender to file nomination papers on Monday.
A five-time MLA, Bindal had lost his election to Congress’s Ajay Solanki from Nahan in 2022.
Earlier to this, he had three assembly elections from Solan and later two from Nahan. Bindal had remained minister for health services under the former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal between 2007-2012.
Known for his organisational skills, Bindal had become the BJP president in 2020 first time but had to quit following allegations in the health department purchases during the Covid-19 pandemic. He resigned from the post, apparently on the party’s instructions. Later in April 2023, he was brought back to the post and asked to rejuvenate the party set-up following the BJP’s defeat in the state assembly polls.
Bindal had also served as Speaker of the state assembly between 2018 to 2020 when he had quit the post to take up the charge of state party president.
Bindal is considered close to BJP national president J P Nadda.
Leader of Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur, former Union minister Anurag Thakur, Lok Sabha members Suresh Kashyap, Kangna Ranaut, Rajiv Bharadwaj, Rajya Sabha members Indu Goswami, Sikender Kumar, and Harsh Mahajan were present during the ceremony.
Earlier, former minister Govind Thakur and party general secretaries Bihari Lal Sharma, Trilok Kapoor, Pawan Kajal, Rashmi Dhar Sood, Payal Vaidya, Rajiv Saizal, and Sanjeev Katwal were elected as National Council members.