NEW DELHI, July 4: Gearing up for the big 2024 Parliamentary elections and some key state Assembly elections later this year, the BJP elections on Tuesday appointed new party presidents in four states.
In a statement, the BJP national president J.P. Nadda announced the appointments of Daggubati Purandeswari as Andhra Pradesh BJP chief, G. Kishan Reddy as State president of the party’s Telangana unit, Babulal Marandi as Jharkhand BJP chief and Sunil Jakhar as Punjab unit chief.
G Kishan Reddy, MP and union minister, will now lead the party in poll-bound Telangana, replacing Bandi Sanjay Kumar. BJP MLA Etela Rajender, who served as the first finance minister of Telangana, has been appointed chairman of the BJP’s state election management committee for the upcoming Telangana assembly polls. He started his political career with K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi and stayed with it till 2021, after which he joined the BJP.
Daggubati Purandeswari, daughter of Telugu Desam Party founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NT Rama Rao, has been appointed Andhra Pradesh BJP president. Sunil Kumar Jakhar, the former MP who jumped ship from Congress in May last year claiming he wanted to support “nationalism, unity and brotherhood in Punjab”, will lead the party in Punjab.
Babulal Marandi, the first Chief Minister of Jharkhand and current Leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, is BJP Jharkhand president. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the last Chief Minister of the United Andhra Pradesh before the formation of the Telangana state, has been appointed as member of the party’s national executive committee.
The BJP has called a meeting of all the state presidents, state general secretaries, and state in charges on July 7. Nadda and National General Secretary BL Santosh will preside over this meeting.
The development highlights the BJP’s emphasis to set its house in order in Telangana where many relatively new, but powerful entrants to the party were against the leadership of Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Sources said Mr. Kumar may be inducted as a Minister in the Central Government in a reshuffle in the coming days.
Jakhar replaces Ahwani Sharma while Marandi comes in the place of Deepak Prakash. The rejig is significant in the primacy given to leaders who have joined the BJP from other parties. Jakhar and Rajender left the Congress and the BRS respectively to join the BJP. Purandeswari was in the Congress and a Minister in the UPA Government. The development will further fuel the speculation about a Cabinet rejig.
(Manas Dasgupta)