BJP's new state presidents: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday appointed four new state presidents in Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha and Delhi. The four new appointees include Lok Sabha MP CP Joshi in Rajasthan and OBC leader and MLC Samrat Choudhary in Bihar.
According to sources, this comes as the saffron party aims to bolster its organisational machinery with an eye on consolidating its support base in the run-up to crucial state and national polls.
Who are the four new appointees?
Virender Sachdeva, who was the working state president in Delhi, has now been given full-time responsibility by party National President JP Nadda.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to stop the ongoing infighting in Rajasthan, Lok Sabha MP CP Joshi will replace current state president Satish Punia. Member of Legislative Council Samrat Chowdhary has been appointed as the new Bihar party president, while in Odisha, former minister Manmohan Samal will assume the new role.
A Brahmin face, Joshi is a second-time MP from the Chittorgarh Lok Sabha seat.
Poonia had strained terms with Vasundhara Raje
Like Kataria, Poonia, too, did not have the best of equations with former chief minister Vasundhara Raje who remains the BJP's most formidable leader in the state.
The party's central leadership has had its reservations about her but there have been indications that equations have improved between them.
Meanwhile, BJP sources noted that the term of the state presidents had got over.
Samal, a former MP, is one of the better-known BJP faces from Odisha and is seen to bring more heft than his predecessor Samir Mohanty, political watchers said.
He is aggressive and his politics bears a distinct Hindutva mark, they added. He had headed the state BJP earlier as well.
The top leadership in the BJP believes that Sachdeva has been impressive in his short stint at the party's Delhi working president following the removal of Adesh Gupta from the helm. He is low-key and out and out organisational person who has been able to infuse a sense of cohesion in the state unit often pulled in different directions by local heavyweights, they added.
(With inputs from PTI)
