BJP appoints 4 new state chiefs ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls

The four states are Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand.

With elections in sight, the Bharatiya Janata Party made sweeping organisational changes on Tuesday, announcing new state heads in four states. Union culture minister G Kishan Reddy will now head the party’s Telangana unit, while Etela Rajender will head the election management committee in the state. D Purandeshwari will be the new Andhra unit president, Sunil Jakhar will head the Punjab unit, and Babulal Marandi is the Chhattisgarh unit president.

Leaders in the party’s Telangana unit said that former state unit chief Bandi Sanjay is likely to head to the Centre. In a long note on Twitter, Sanjay said, “Some chapters in our lives have to close without closure… I am happy that I am not a sad story.”

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Sanjay, who was feted by prime minister Narendra Modi in the last national executive meet of the party held in Delhi in January for his work in reinvigorating the state unit, faced some resistance with the entry of former Bhartiya Rashtra Samiti leader Etela Rajender from the Mudira community, said leaders.

A lawmaker from the state, who did not wish to be named, said that the Mudira community accounts for more than 50% of the electorate. “Kishen Reddy is seen as a simple and approachable person and he will bring in the much-needed changes in the unit which was increasingly being seen as disparate. Groups had formed, and leaders would not sit in each other’s press conferences. The electorate was beginning to think that they will go their separate ways,” the leader said.

Karuna Gopal Vartakavi, national in-charge for Women Policies, said that the changes will bring in results. “These changes show the party’s ability to recast the team based on the situation. Bandi Sanjay made the team ready, he could aggregate the rural voters and the youth; his padyatra was immensely successful,” Vartakavi said.

The BJP also named D Purandeshwari, daughter of former Andhra CM NT Rama Rao, as the president of the state unit, and appointed former CM Kiran Kumar Reddy to the party’s national executive. A leader from the state unit said that Purandeshwari, who is active in the party matters, is seen as approachable. “It will be easy for her to reach out to various sections of the people; she commands respect because of her family and she was a union minister. New blood coming into the party from Congress and Telugu Desam Party will find it easy to deal with her,” the leader said.

The leader also said that Purandeshwari’s elevation might point to the BJP’s reluctance to bring the TDP back into the NDA fold – despite being related to Chandrababu Naidu, she does not have close ties with him.

In Punjab, even as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP have restarted talks, the party appointed Sunil Jakhar as the state unit chief. Jakhar was made part of the party national executive last year.

Former Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi has been made the party’s state president. Marandi, who broke away from the BJP in 2006 to form the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) party, merged it with the party in 2020. With the Uniform Civil Code and the upcoming elections in the state, the move indicates that the party intends to woo the tribal community.