Bhopal: The reconstitution of the Chhattisgarh BJP’s executive body has dealt a blow to former chief minister Raman Singh’s efforts to revive the political career of his son, Abhishek Singh. Despite intense lobbying by the senior Singh, his son failed to secure a place in the newly constituted state executive, party sources said on Saturday.Abhishek, an engineering and management graduate, was once seen as a rising star in the BJP after winning the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Rajnandgaon during his father’s tenure as chief minister. However, he was denied tickets in both the 2019 and 2024 parliamentary polls, leaving his political future uncertain. His father had reportedly sought to re-launch his career by securing him the post of state general secretary, but the leadership did not give in.Abhishek’s career has also been dogged by controversy. The Congress had accused him of links to the Panama Papers as an illegal offshore investor—an allegation he flatly denied, insisting the name “Abhisak” mentioned in the papers was not his.Interestingly, in the new executive body, not only Abhishek Singh but several senior BJP leaders and their loyalists have been overlooked. Those sidelined include Raman Singh himself, former ministers Brij Mohan Agrawal, Kedar Kashyap, Prem Prakash Pandey, Ajay Chandrakar, former MP Ramesh Bais, and senior leader Saroj Pandey.Party insiders said the organisation leadership had a “free hand” in the restructuring exercise. The revamped executive includes eight vice-presidents, three general secretaries, eight secretaries, and a treasurer. All frontal organisations of the BJP in the state have also been reshuffled.Raman Singh, currently the Speaker of the Chhattisgarh Assembly, is believed to have “pulled all strings possible” but appears to have lost ground within the reoriented state unit, dominated by new faces.
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