BJP new party chiefs in 4 states: The Bharatiya Janata Party, with an eye on Lok Sabha elections in 2024, on Tuesday, made some organisational changes and appointed four new state chiefs for Telangana, Punjab, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh. Three out of four are poll-bound states. While Sunil Jakhar gets the responsibility of Punjab, Babulal Marandi will be looking after the Jharkhand unit. G Kishan Reddy has been made the BJP state chief of Telangana. Daggubati Purandeswari will be new Andhra Pradesh BJP chief.
It is possible that a few leaders, from states where assembly elections are due later this year or early next year, could be brought into the central Cabinet. The BJP may also ask some of its Rajya Sabha MPs to contest Lok Sabha polls. It is likely that these leaders would then be shifted to party organisation from Cabinet to prepare for the big 2024 fight.
Telangana
Union minister G Kishan Reddy has been given the charge of Telangana by the BJP. Owing to BJP's norm of one-person-one-post, G Kishan Reddy will have to do away with Culture, Tourism and Development of the North East Region ministry from the Modi Cabinet. He even skipped the meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. The BJP in order to counter KCR may also project Reddy as the CM face on corruption plank and also to strengthen the party at grassroots level. The BJP, often spearheaded by governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, has countered the CM and the BRS over allegations of corruption.
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Punjab
BJP appointed Congress turncoat Sunil Jhakar as Punjab state chief. Jakhar, one of the senior most leaders in the party, joined BJP after being snubbed by the Congress after it made Navjot Singh Sidhu the state chief in May 2022. The appointment of Sunil Jakhar, who is a popular leader in Punjab, is being seen as an attempt to strengthen the party base in the northern state where the BJP has failed to open its books.
Andhra Pradesh
Keeping the mass popularity of actor-turned-politician NT Rama Rao, his daughter Daggubati Purandeswari was made the BJP state chief. In 1989, he was one of the key politicians to form National Front — a coalition of non-Congress parties along with Janata Dal, DMK, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) etc. This became the ruling alliance between 1989 and 1990 with support from the Left Front and the BJP, and VP Singh was the Prime Minister.
Jharkhand
Babulal Marandi, who has been given the charge of the state is known for his clean image which BJP will try to reap benefits from. Taking a cue from the Karnataka Assembly polls in which BJP lost miserably because of corruption charges, the party will try to cash in on Marandi's clean image.
