From Left: G Kishan Reddy, D Purandeshwari, Babulal Marandi & Sunil Jakhar
On July 4, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed state chiefs for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Punjab ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
G Kishan Reddy has been appointed as the State President of BJP’s Telangana unit, meanwhile, D Purandeshwari has been appointed as the BJP State President of Andhra Pradesh. Notably, the two states – Andhra Pradesh and Telangana – will go to Assembly elections within a year. Meanwhile, Babulal Marandi has been appointed as BJP chief for Jharkhand, whereas Sunil Jakhar would now lead BJP’s Punjab unit.
G Kishan Reddy
Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Gangapuram Kishan Reddy will now lead BJP in the poll-bound Telangana, replacing Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Reddy is a Lok Sabha MP, representing the Secunderabad constituency winning over his nearest rival with a staggering margin of 62,144 votes.
Earlier, he was a three-time MLA and BJP Floor Leader in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Reddy started his political career as a youth worker in the Janata Party and joined the BJP on its inception in 1980.
D Purandeswari
Former Minister of State (MoS) for Human Resource Development, Daggubati Purandeswari, would now lead BJP in poll-bound Andhra Pradesh, replacing former Andhra BJP chief Somu Veerraju. She is the daughter of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NT Rama Rao.
She was a part of the debate on various bills such as the Domestic Violence Bill, the Hindu Succession Amendment Bill, and the bill to establish special courts exclusively trying cases of women.
Babulal Marandi
First Chief Minister of Jharkhand and current Leader of Opposition in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, Babulal Marandi will take charge of BJP’s Jharkhand unit, replacing former BJP state chief Deepak Prakash. In 1991, he fought the Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket, but he lost. He contested on a BJP ticket again in 1996, losing to Shibu Soren by a small margin of 5,000 votes.
He was later appointed as the BJP state chief for Jharkhand, leading the party to win 12 out of 14 seats in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. In 2006, he founded Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), a regional party, which later merged with the BJP in 2020. He also served as the Union Minister of State (MoS) for Forests & Environment in the BJP-led NDA alliance between 1998 and 2000.
Sunil Jakhar
Former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Sunil Jakhar would now lead BJP in the state, replacing Pathankot MLA Ashwani Sharma. Once among the senior-most leaders of the Punjab Congress, he joined the BJP in May 2022, stating that he wished to support “nationalism, unity and brotherhood in Punjab.”
Former Gurdaspur MP, Sunil Jakhar served as the PPCC chief for four years before being replaced by Navjot Singh Sidhu in 2021. He has also served as a two-time MLA from Abohar Assembly constituency. He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly between 2012 and 2016.
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