BJP Appoints New State Chiefs Across States

The BJP on Tuesday named Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, Sunil Jakhar, Babulal Marandi and D Purandeswari as its Presidents in Telangana, Punjab and Jharkhand respectively.

Reddy, who served as Union Minister For Culture, Tourism And Development Of North Eastern Region (DoNER), will be replacing Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay as the Telangana State Chief. The latter is expected to be made Minister of State in the Union Cabinet.

The development highlights the BJP's emphasis to set its house in order in Telangana where many relatively new but powerful entrants to the party were against the leadership of Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

Coming to D Purandeswari, the daughter of former Andhra CM and legendary Telugu actor NTR has replaced Somu Veerraju as the Andhra Pradesh BJP President.

The BJP central leadership has appointed Kiran Kumar Reddy, former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, as a member of BJP's National Executive Committee.

The change in the guard in the Telugu-speaking states is made ahead of Telangana assembly polls, likely to be held towards the end of the year.

The saffron party has also appointed Sunil Kumar Jakhar, who joined the BJP from Congress in May, as the Punjab BJP Chief and Babulal Marandi as the President of its Jharkhand unit.

Jakhar replaces Ashwani Sharma while Marandi comes in the place of Deepak Prakash.

It has to be noted that Jakhar and Rajender left the Congress and the BRS respectively to join the BJP. Purandeswari was in the Congress and a minister in the UPA government.

A meeting of all the state presidents, state general secretaries, and state in charges has been called by the BJP on July 7.