Deepak Prakash replaces Gilua as BJP Jharkhand president

RANCHI: BJP state unit on Tuesday named Deepak Prakash as its president, replacing Laxman Gilua, a tribal leader from Chaibasa. The development comes a day after the saffron party appointed former chief minister Babulal Marandi as the leader of its legislative party.
BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said Prakash's appointment has been approved by the party's national president J P Nadda.Gilua had tendered his resignation after BJP's defeat in last year's assembly election, but the party asked him to remain in-charge till an organisational restructure took place.
Prakash, who was BJP state unit's general secretary, has been a RSS member since 1973. A post-graduate in political science, he has held several key posts in Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and BJP. In the party, he held the post of state general secretary twice, and served as vice-president thrice. He was also member of BJP's core committee for three times. Talking to TOI after his appointment, Prakash said he will take charge formally in a few days and highlighted that his focus will be on striking a balance between youth and experienced to reinvigorate the party. He said, "My immediate priority is to play the role of a constructive yet fierce opposition in the assembly to keep the current government on its toes. The mahagatbandhan came to power with 52 lakh vote in the election, but BJP - with 50 lakh votes - is still a force to reckon with. We are committed to play our role effectively."
"Victory and defeat are part of the game. The grooming in BJP is such that every party worker is always ready to convert challenges into opportunities," Prakash said. He added, "There is absolutely no dissent or factionalism at any level in the party rank and file. Even if it exists in certain isolated pockets, we will sort it out democratically."
Prakash said that the rich experience of three former chief ministers - Raghubar Das, Babulal Marandi and Arjun Munda (now the Union minister for tribal affairs) - along with a host of old timers will be his asset to fine-tune the party. Both Das and Munda congratulated Prakash on his appointment.
Sources in BJP said the appointment of Prakash, a non-tribal, to the post aims at balancing the caste equation within the party. The sources added while Marandi's induction into BJP and his appointment as leader of the legislative party is aimed at targeting the tribal vote base, Prakash's appointment is to woo the upper caste. Prakash is also considered close to Nadda.
During Marandi's tenure as Jharkhand's first chief minister from 2000 to 2003, Prakash served as chairman of the Jharkhand Mines Development Corporation. When Marandi left BJP in 2006 to form JVM-P, Prakash accompanied him, but returned to the saffron fold three years later.
A senior BJP functionary said, "A non-tribal (Raghubar Das) was the CM and a tribal (Gilua) was party president between 2014 and 2019, but the experiment did not yield the desired electoral results. Hence, the party high command has perhaps decided for a role-reversal on the two key posts. It first brought back Marandi into the party to make him the legislative leader, hinting at his projection as the CM face in 2024. Thereafter, a non-tribal upper caste person has been made party chief. We lost votes from these two segments."