Adesh Kumar Gupta is Delhi BJP chief, Vishnu Deo Sai to head Chhattisgarh unit

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Tuesday appointed Adesh Kumar Gupta as its Delhi unit chief replacing Manoj Tiwari, and tribal leader and former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai as its Chhattisgarh state president.

Gupta's appointment indicates that the BJP is going back to its earlier trader community base in the capital, after failing to make much headway among the sizeable Purvanchali voter base in the recent Assembly elections by betting on Bhojpuri star Tiwari.

Tiwari had offered to quit after the BJP lost heavily to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party in the 2019 Delhi assembly polls, and his term was not expected to be renewed by nationaal president JP Nadda.

An active member of RSS since his college days, Gupta is a former mayor of north Delhi municipal corporation, and was backed by Dr Harsh Vardhan, the BJP's stalwart in Delhi.

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP appointed its tribal face Vishnu Deo Sai -- who earlier headed the party in the state twice from 2006 to 2013 -- as state president replacing Vikarm Usendi.

Sai was a union minister of state in the first Modi government but could not contest the 2019 Lol Sabha polls because the BJP decided to not repeat any of its sitting MPs in Chhattisgarh after losing to the Congress in the assembly polls.

Sai was then then the first to publicly offer to give up his sitting Lok Sabha seat, a move that went down very well with the BJP central leadership.

The Chhattisgarh move was also expected as the ruling Congress has a tribal leader in Mohan Markam as its state president , and the BJP already has OBC face Dharamlal Kaushik as the leader of the Opposition.

In another appointment, the party made S Tikendra Singh its Manipur state president. Singh was the BJP state spokesperson before becoming president.