BJP releases new list of National Office Bearers; Bandi Sanjay general secretary, C T Ravi dropped

These changes have come after months of deliberations and in time for some crucial elections in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP on Saturday rejigged its team of National Office Bearers, dropping prominent names like C T Ravi, Dilip Ghosh, Dilip Saikia and Sunil Deodhar to bring in new faces such as Bandi Sanjay, Anil Antony and Kamakhya P Tasa.

.@BJP4India rejig a several names across various state units.@bandisanjay_bjp & Rammohan Agrawal new Gen Secs, CT Ravi is dropped @DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/LqfMuc8Ihx

— amrita madhukalya (@visually_kei) July 29, 2023

Bandi Sanjay, who recently ceased to be the state president in Telangana, has been brought in as a general secretary, along with Rammohan Agrawal. Those who were dropped from the list of general secretaries include C T Ravi.

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These changes have come after months of deliberations and in time for some crucial elections; Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are the states that are headed to the polls later this year. None of these changes have been notified as of now in the Parliament Board and Central Election Committee.

Dilip Ghosh and Bhartiben Syal are now no longer vice-presidents. Instead, new faces include Laxmikant Vajpayee, Lata Usendi and Tareek Mansoor.

Kamakhya P Tasa, Surendra Singh Nagar, and Anil Antony are the party’s new Secretaries. Among the list of the party’s Secretaries, those that were dropped include Vinay Sonkar, Sunil Deodhar, Harish Dwivedi. Antony, whose father AK Antony was a close aide of Sonia Gandhi, had joined the BJP earlier this year. Tasa is a leader from the tea gardens of Upper Assam.

In addition to that, Naresh Bansal replaces Sudhir Gupta as Joint Treasurer of the party.

Radhamohan Agrawal, a close aide of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, vacated the Gorakhpur assembly seat for the former MP. As a reward, he was given a Rajya Sabha ticket last year in May. With his appointment, UP will have two general secretaries.

Another notable addition is Tareek Mansoor, former VC of the Aligarh Muslim University, who has played a key role for the party during the anti-CAA protests. He was also responsible for the Dara Shikoh library, a project that is considered crucial for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and is now working on the party’s efforts to woo Pasmanda Muslims.

The BJP has also sought to bring in more young as well as minority faces into the fold, with the appointments of Mansoor and Antony.