Actor-politician Manoj Tiwari has been replaced as chief of the BJP in Delhi. Adesh Kumar Gupta will take over, the ruling party said today.Adesh Gupta, a former North Delhi Municipal Corporation mayor, is everything that Manoj Tiwari was not – a low profile, old hand of the party in the capital. Many interpret his appointment as a sign that the BJP is once again looking for its core support group in the capital — the Vaishya community.
Manoj Tiwari, who was appointed Delhi BJP president in 2016, was said to be on borrowed time since the party’s disastrous performance in the Delhi assembly election in February.Sources say he had offered to resign immediately after the Delhi defeat but was asked to continue until an alternative was found.
The BJP called it a routine move and also announced changes in other states — Vishnu Deo Sai has been appointed chief in Chhattisgarh and S Tikendra Singh in Manipur.”I can only say that I will fulfill my responsibility with honesty and dedication,” Adesh Gupta told NDTV.
“In Delhi, we need to work on the ground level. We need to reach more people and create a more all-embracing organisation, so that we can enhance our voter base,” he added.Mr Tiwari, a Bhojpuri singing star-turned-politician, was always perceived as an “outsider” in the faction-driven Delhi BJP and was seen to have been unable to effectively counter the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) despite his street-fighting skills and non-stop sparring.
