BJP rejig ahead of polls: Anil Antony made national secretary, Abdullakutty to continue as national VP

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J P Nadda announced a rejig in the party’s national leadership positions, releasing the list of new office bearers on Saturday, ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.

There are 13 vice presidents, nine general secretaries, including B L Santhosh as the in-charge of the organisation, and 13 secretaries on the list. Most of the office-bearers have been retained as vice presidents, general secretaries and secretaries in the new list.

Anil Antony, the son of senior Congress leader AK Antony, has been made BJP's national secretary while former AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor has been appointed as vice president.

Anil joined the BJP in April this year in the presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal. He quit the Congress in January following his critical remarks against the Congress party over BBC raids amid the row over BBC’s documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tariq Mansoor had resigned as AMU vice-chancellor earlier this year after he was nominated as a member of the UP Legislative Council. He was amongst the six names forwarded by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh to the governor for being nominated as a member of the legislative council of the state.

Mansoor is a Pasmanda Muslim. The BJP's decision to give a new role to Mansoor is seen to be part of the party's move to woo the Pasmanda Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.

A P Abdullakutty will continue as the national vice president of the party.

Former president of the Telangana state unit Bandi Sanjay has been appointed national general secretary along with lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh Radha Mohan Agarwal.

Several leaders such as CT Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam and Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh have been dropped as its general secretaries. Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, has been dropped as a party vice-president.

BL Santhosh will remain the national general secretary of the BJP, while Shiv Prakash continues to be the joint general secretary.

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