Shehzad Poonawalla quits BJP citing personal reasons

New Delhi: Prominent BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla has quit the party, citing personal reasons, with reports emerging on the morning of Friday, July 31. He is understood to have submitted his resignation to the BJP’s senior leadership on Thursday evening, though neither Poonawalla nor the party has issued an official statement so far. An announcement is expected soon.

The move follows Poonawalla’s decision to update his bio on X, removing all references to the BJP and his role as national spokesperson. His revised bio now reads: “Religion: Islam, Culture: Hindu, ideology: Bhartiya, Author: GST ki Yatra; Lifelong follower of PM Narendra Modi.” He also shared a screenshot of the updated bio on the platform, captioning it simply as “my updated bio”.

Alongside the bio change, Poonawalla reshared clips from earlier TV interviews in which he said it was time for him to step away from active politics, further fuelling speculation about his exit. While his X profile no longer mentions the BJP, some of his other social media accounts, including Instagram, still listed him as a BJP national spokesperson as of Friday morning.

Poonawalla, 38, first came into the spotlight in 2017 after publicly challenging the Congress party’s internal election process. He later joined the BJP and became one of its most visible faces on television debates and political forums. He is the younger brother of political commentator Tehseen Poonawalla; the two had a well-publicised fallout after Shehzad left Congress and aligned with the BJP.