Kolkata, Sept. 14 -- Ahead of upcoming municipal elections, the state BJP has made its organisational appointments, bringing back two familiar faces - former state general secretary Sayantan Bose and party leader Pranoy Roy - as spokespersons.

The organisational rejig came just ahead of BJP national president Nitin Nabin's first scheduled visit to the state after the change of guard.

Nabin is expected to arrive on September 15 and hold several meetings aiming to further consolidate its organisation ahead of a series of electoral battles. BJP's all-India general secretary (organisation), B.L. Santhosh, may accompany Nabin. Both Nabin and Santhosh are expected to give guidelines for ensuring coordination between the party's organisation and the state government.

Union Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh is also expected to visit Kolkata on September 16 to attend a government programme. Singh may also take part in the party's organisational meeting.

On Monday's rejig, advocate Debjit Sarkar has been appointed the chief spokesperson of the state unit, while Anupam Ghosh has been made the media department convenor. Bringing Bose and Roy to the forefront signifies an attempt to bring experienced political voices back as the party prepares for the Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly bypolls and subsequently the civic body elections.

The other spokespersons are Ritesh Tiwari, Keya Ghosh, Dr Tanmoy Mukhopadhyay, Saptarshi Choudhury, Ophelia Singh, Ankan Dutta, Megha Sen Roy, Dr Nikhil Prasun Singh, Shamik Dasgupta, Sudipta Guha and retired Major Ritwik Pal. Saptarshi Choudhury will also oversee the party's publications.

Partha Sarathi Choudhury and Chandrashekhar Basutia have been appointed joint convenors of the media department, while Joy Mallick will head the IT cell and Upamanyu Bhattacharya will look after the social media department.

Around 14 months after Bhattacharya was selected as the state BJP president. Last week, the party announced a broad state executive committee, with senior leaders, including Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar, Jagannath Chatterjee, Tapas Roy, Agnimitra Paul and Shankar Ghosh, being assigned prominent organisational responsibilities.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.