The state government has appointed advocate Shankar Lal Dhopra, 65, as the new chairman of the Board of School Education Haryana (BSEH) in Bhiwani. He assumed charge on Wednesday.His transition to the education board marks a shift in the institution’s leadership profile, as the BSEH chairperson’s post has traditionally been held by civil servants, with IAS officers previously heading the administration. (HT Photo)Dhopra, a former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Bhiwani district unit, replaces Pawan Kumar, a former Government PG College principal who took charge in March last year.According to the order issued on Tuesday night by Vijay Singh Dahiya, the principal secretary to the school education department, the governor of Haryana, Ashim Kumar Ghosh, formalised Dhopra’s appointment.Born in Bhiwani in 1961, Dhopra is a practicing lawyer who completed his early schooling locally before earning his LLB from Jaipur University. His political career began as a student leader, which led to a role as vice-president of the Janata Party Yuva Morcha. He joined the BJP in 1988 and steadily rose through the organisational ranks, serving as a mandal executive committee member and mandal vice-president by 1995.Over the next two decades, Dhopra held various responsibilities, including district secretary, district media in-charge, and state co-media in-charge.Following three terms as district general secretary, Dhopra was appointed state general secretary of the BJP Other Backward Classes (OBC) Morcha in 2015. On August 19, 2020, then state BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankhar appointed him Bhiwani district president.Dhopra’s appointment came a day after Union minister and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s visit to Bhiwani on May 25.On being contacted, Dhopra said his key focus will be on checking cheating and paper leaks. He said that he also wants to eliminate the fear of exams among students. When asked about his lack of relevant experience—since the position was previously held by IAS officers and individuals with similar backgrounds—Dhopra responded, “I am an advocate, and several people from legal backgrounds have held this post. I am confident that I will do my job as per the expectations of the people and the CM of Haryana.”His transition to the education board marks a shift in the institution’s leadership profile, as the BSEH chairperson’s post has traditionally been held by civil servants, with IAS officers previously heading the administration.As per the incumbency chart of the BSEH chairman, the position before 2016 was mostly held by IAS officers since the first chairman of the BSEH was IAS BL Ahuja who remained on the post from July 1969 to June 1971.IAS Kesani Anand Arora also remained in this post from October 14, 2015 to 4 April 2016. Arora was replaced by Jagbir Singh, who was serving as district extension specialist (zoology) at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar.He served for three terms from April 2016 to October 2022. He was replaced by Ved Parkash Yadav who served from October 2022 to December 2024 before IAS officer Pankaj Aggarwal was given the additional charge as the chairman for a few months.Ved Parkash had previously also served as vice-chairman of the BSEH. Pawan Kumar, who was replaced by Dhopra overnight, held this post thrice since March 3, 2025. His last appointment was made on March 12, this month.