Gurugram: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini made three key appointments to his office Tuesday, picking Virender Singh Badkhalsa as officer on special duty, Praveen Attrey as media secretary and Tarun Bhandari as political secretary.
The last of these has drawn attention, as Bhandari is a former Congress leader who joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 Haryana assembly polls. He is also seen as having been instrumental in the induction of prominent Congress leaders into the BJP.
All three officers were previously posted in the CMO of Manohar Lal Khattar, with Badkhalsa and Attrey holding the same posts and Bhandari serving as publicity adviser.
A resident of Panchkula, Bhandari has previously headed the Panchkula Municipal Council and was till October 2019 treasurer of the Haryana Congress, a post to which he was appointed by Ashok Tanwar, who headed the party’s state unit from 2014 to 2019.
This article is NOT paywalled
But your support enables us to deliver impactful stories, credible interviews, insightful opinions and on-ground reportage.
When Tanwar was replaced as Haryana Congress chief ahead of the 2019 elections by Kumari Selja, Bhandari did not make it to her core team. Tanwar subsequently bid adieu to the Congress on the issue of ticket distribution and Bhandari, too, quit the party.
He joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 Haryana elections in the presence of then CM Khattar.
In February last year, after six Himachal Congress MLAs voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections, Bhandari, according to media reports, was the man who ensured their safe stay in Panchkula and subsequent journey to Shimla to attend the assembly.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior BJP leader said, “Bhandari has facilitated the inclusion of nearly 100 prominent Congress leaders into the BJP.”
Tanwar himself joined the BJP in January last year and Bhandari was seen welcoming him in a photo, along with BJP president J.P. Nadda, Khattar and Saini. However, Tanwar returned to the Congress late last year.
When former Congress MLA Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry joined the BJP ahead of last year’s Haryana assembly elections, Bhandari was again seen as being behind the move.
In her speech at the time of joining the BJP, Bhandari was the only state-level BJP leader whom Kiran Choudhry thanked, besides CM Saini and state BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli.
ThePrint reached Bhandari via calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Bhandari & Himachal MLAs
In the Rajya Sabha polls, after six Congress MLAs cross-voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan instead of the party’s official candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, they were immediately shifted to Panchkula, where they were initially lodged at a state rest house and later shifted elsewhere.
According to media reports, Bhandari was in constant touch with the Himachal MLAs during their stay in Panchkula.
In June last year, the Himachal Pradesh Police served Bhandari a notice asking him to appear before them in Shimla in connection with an FIR registered there regarding a conspiracy to destabilise the state government.
Bhandari applied for anticipatory bail and the Himachal Pradesh High Court subsequently granted him interim bail and asked him to join the investigation with the Shimla police.
Bhandari later appeared before the police in Shimla to join the probe, which is still on.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Haryana’s IAS officers are juggling multiple depts. What’s behind state’s acute shortage of officers
