The BJP State unit, in a move that caught most of its members unaware, got a new president in Adesh Kumar Gupta, a sitting municipal councillor here on Tuesday.
Mr. Gupta, a first-time councillor from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation where he represents West Patel Nagarand served as Mayor in 2018, will replace North-East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari.
A senior party leader said his appointment was to ensure that “the Sangh’s ideologues, the Delhi BJP’s office-bearers and the organisational structure shared by both” were on the same page. With civic polls in less than two years, Mr. Gupta also checks the right box as far as the core votebank of the BJP in Delhi, the baniya community, is concerned, he said.
“My objective is to strengthen the organisational structure and cadre of the party and also to address issues related to the party’s image in some quarters of the city, especially unauthorised colonies,” Mr. Gupta said.
The party’s cadre will be out on the streets more often; we will address the woes of migrants and also keep exposing the failures of the AAP Delhi government in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he stated.
According to party sources, Mr. Gupta, who started his career as a student activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at Kannauj in 1986 in which he rose to the position state joint secretary of Uttar Pradesh, would work towards “instilling discipline” in the Delhi BJP. He is considered close both to the RSS as well as BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda, also a former ABVP leader.
“Mr. Tiwari was appointed president in November 2016 and his three-year tenure came to an end in November last year. He was asked to stay on because of the Delhi Assembly elections. Mr. Gupta’s name had been decided in March this year but could not be announced due to the lockdown,” said a senior party leader.
Mr. Gupta moved to Delhi in 1994 following which he was appointed the national office secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha. He also held various positions within the Delhi BJP from the block to district and state levels between 2009 and 2014.
“This appointment, after a very long time, means that everyone from the RSS-appointed organizational leaders in the Delhi BJP to its office bearers and the cadre which is common to both are on the same page instead of a situation where one hand was left guessing what the other was up to,” said a party source.
“I will be ever grateful to all the workers, office bearers and Delhi people for their affection and cooperation in my 3.6 years term as state president. Forgive me for any mistake committed knowingly or unknowingly. Many congratulations to new state president Adesh Gupta,” Mr. Tiwari tweeted.
