Eye on 2024 election, BJP shuffles deck and appoints new state chiefs

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced major organisational changes in four states of the country

In a major organisational restructuring ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced new party presidents for the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Punjab.

BJP shuffles deck and appoints new state chiefs

While union minister G Kishan Reddy has been appointed the president of the state unit in Telangana replacing Bandi Sanjay while Etela Rajender has been given charge of the election management committee.

Commenting on the appointments, a senior leader said Reddy’s appointment will “keep the flock together” as he is seen as a “friend to all.”

“There were many issues that had cropped up in the party after Bandi’s elevation and with Reddy’s appointment, we expect those to be resolved,” the leader said.

The appointment of Reddy as president and Rajender as the campaign committee chief, the leader said will also help balance the caste composition.

“The BJP’s core vote bank are the backward classes, but we are expecting this combination of leaders to work well together to draw voters across castes. While Etela’s caste make up for 53% of the votebank, Reddys are about 5%, the remaining 10-11% are Kappus who are represented by Bandi and other leaders like Arvind Dharamapuri,” the leader said.

Reddy’s appointment also indicates that a rejig in the union council of ministers is on the cards.

In Punjab, Ashwani Sharma has been replaced by Sunil Jhakhar, who is a former Congressman and joined the BJP in March 2022, following a public showdown after being overlooked for the position of PCC chief.

In December along with former Punjab chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh he was inducted as members of the national executive.

The party is keen on rebuilding the state unit after its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ended and has been scouting for strong and recognisable leaders on the ground.

Former minister in the UPA government, D Purandeshwari was appointed as the president of the Andhra Pradesh unit replacing Somu Veeraju, where the BJP has been aggressively pushing to expand its footprint.

The state unit had conveyed to the central high command the lack of support for the party from politically dominant castes and the leadership crisis that was proving to be an impediment for the party’s expansion.

“Purandeshwari’s appointment is intriguing since there is talk of the BJP and TDP realigning ahead of the 2024 elections. She was inducted to wean away the politically dominant Kamma votes that constitute about 6% of the electorate and are considered the vote bank of the TDP,” said the leader.

Purandeswari, who was inducted in the national team as a general secretary, is the daughter of former chief minister NT Rama Rao and is TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu’s sister-in-law.

Former Andhra CM, Kiran Kumar Reddy has been inducted in the national executive.

In Jharkhand, former CM Babulal Marandi has been appointed as president.

A tribal leader, who announced the merger of his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) with the BJP in 2020 is expected to consolidate the party’s position among the tribal communities.

Marandi had quit the BJP in 2006 to set up his own party.

“The BJP’s experiment with appointing a non-tribal leader as CM (Raghubar Das) did not pay off. The appointment of Marandi, who was the first tribal leader of the state to become CM is a clear indication that the BJP wants to woo the tribal communities who have grown distant from the party over some issues such as land and forest rights and now more recently, about UCC,” said a state leader.