Five-time MLA, ex-minister Sanjay Saraogi appointed BJP's new Bihar unit president

New Delhi/Patna: The BJP on Monday appointed Sanjay Saraogi as its Bihar unit president, a month after the saffron party-led NDA swept the assembly polls in the eastern state.

Saraogi, 57, a former cabinet minister in the Bihar government, is an MLA from Dharbhanga constituency. He succeeds Dilip Jaiswal, who was appointed to the post less than two years ago.

"Bharatiya Janata Party national president Jagat Prakash Nadda has appointed Sanjay Saraogi as the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar with immediate effect," BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said in a notification.

Jaiswal is understood to have been replaced in keeping with the BJP’s stated policy of ‘one person one post’. Last year, he had resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet upon becoming the state BJP president, replacing Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary.

Saraogi was inducted into the state cabinet in February this year, and allocated the crucial Revenue and Land Reform portfolio.

However, many eyebrows were raised when he was not included in the new ministry formed last month, after NDA’s resounding victory, with the BJP emerging as the single-largest party.

Often known to adopt a hard-line stance on issues, Saragoi started his political career as student activist of the ABVP and, later, became an active member of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) before being appointed the Darbhanga city unit president of the BJP in 2001.

He made his electoral debut in the 2005 assembly polls from Darbhanga, and has been winning the seat on the trot since then.

Like Jaiswal, Saragoi is also a Vaishya, a caste group, which may not be politically dominant in Bihar, but forms the core support base of the BJP.