JOIN USBJP appoints four new state unit presidents ahead of 2024 polls, banks on OBC face in Bihar
With the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as well as key assembly elections in sight, significantly the Rajasthan state elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) changed its state unit chiefs in Rajasthan, Delhi, Odisha and Bihar. Rajasthan state president Satish Poonia, who had emerged as a rival to former CM Vasundhara Raje, has been replaced by Lok Sabha MP C P Joshi. In Bihar, keeping caste equations in mind, Sanjay Jaiswal has been replaced by an OBC face in Samrat Chaudhary. In Bihar as well as Rajasthan, with crucial elections in sight, the party changed its unit chiefs to keep other factions happy and to combat rising discontent among state leaders.
Additionally, in Delhi, Adesh Gupta has been replaced by Virendra Sachdeva, and in Odisha, state president Samir Mohanty made way for Manmohan Samal.
In Rajasthan, with Poonia’s exit, the BJP’s central leadership have finally chosen a side in the troublesome exchanges between Poonia and Raje, which has been brewing for more than a year. Earlier this month, as Raje displayed a show of power at her birthday celebrations at Salasar, where over 52 of the state’s 70 BJP legislators as well as 118 former MLAs in addition to 12 MPs attended, Poonia carried out a protest against the Gehlot government in another part of the state. State in-charge Arun Singh tried a fine balance by attending both.
A senior party leader from the state said that the central leadership had, last year, asked them to sort out the issues. Joshi’s selection is also keeping caste equations in mind, the leader said. Joshi, a Brahmin, has roots in the RSS and is seen as neutral. It did not help that Poonia’s poll record has not been robust. “He lost a by-election in his own home constituency when BJP was in power, with Bhaironsingh Shekhawat campaigning for him,” the leader said.
Apart from Raje and Punia, another hopeful in the state, Gulab Chand Kataria, has recently been appointed governor. Other claimants include Gajendar Sekhawat, Om Mathur, Arjun Meghwal, Prakash Chand, etc.
In Bihar, with the caste equation in mind again, the BJP brought in Choudhary as he belongs to the Kurmi caste. “Chief minister Nitish Kumar belongs to the OBC caste, and so does Choudhary,” the leader said. The BJP has been trying to warm up to the Kurmis in the state, where it is trying hard to make up for its losses after the split with JD(U).
In Delhi, the BJP has retained acting president Virendra Sachdeva as the chief after the party let former president Adesh Gupta go. For Odisha, the party has chosen Samal, a former state unit president, under whose leadership the party had won its highest tally in the state.