New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday appointed Adesh Kumar Gupta as its Delhi unit chief and tribal leader and former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai as its Chhattisgarh state president, the party said in a statement.
Gupta is a former mayor of north Delhi municipal corporation and replaces Manoj Tiwari, a member of Lok Sabha, at the helm in the Delhi BJP.
A municipal councilor in the national capital, Gupta was born in Uttar Pradesh and has had a long association with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of RSS, and BJYM, the BJP’s youth organisation.
In Delhi, the BJP leadership has continued with its long term goal of cultivating a new brass of regional leaders to cater to the city’s changing demographic profile, in which migrants have gained in importance, despite its limited electoral success in assembly polls so far.
Tiwari had offered to quit after the BJP lost to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly polls and his three-year term was also over.
In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has banked on Sai, a regional heavyweight with past tenure as the state party chief as well, to strengthen the organisation.
He was a Union minister in the first Modi government but could not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after the BJP decided to not repeat any of its sitting MPs in Chhattisgarh after losing to the Congress in the assembly polls.
He replaces Vikram Usendi. His appointment also underscores the party’s attempt to win over tribal votes which is seen to have drifted from it.
In another appointment, the party made S Tikendra Singh its Manipur state president. (Agencies)
