Adesh Kumar Gupta replaces Manoj Tiwari as Delhi BJP chief
NEW DELHI: In an unexpected move, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday named first time councilor Adesh Kumar Gupta to replace Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari, a two-time MP from Northeast Delhi, as the new party president of Delhi.
Tiwari’s replacement was imminent since the party’s drubbing in the assembly elections in February but it was delayed because of the communal riots in Northeast Delhi and the lockdown.
The party could win only eight seats in the 70-member assembly. Senior party leaders said Gupta’s long and close association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP president J P Nadda had helped him get the coveted post.
“It is clear the RSS wants to hold the keys of the state. It has had several run-ins with the outgoing president Tiwari. Gupta’s appointment indicates that Delhi BJP in-charge Shyam Jaju, who is also the vice-president, has had his way. Their dominance in the functioning of the local unit will increase in the coming days,” a party leader said.
Gupta expressed his gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nadda. Gupta, who has served as mayor of north Delhi, is a member of the standing committee in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. He hails from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, where he began his political journey as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of RSS, in the late 1980s in UP. During his ABVP days he had come in contact with Nadda.
Later in 1994, he moved to the national capital and was appointed as the national office secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha when union minister Dharmendra Pradhan was its president. He successfully contested his first elections in 2017 from West Patel Nagar municipal ward.
“He is known as an efficient party worker but was never been a front-runner for the post. His association with the party president and the ABVP have worked in his favour. It seems party wants Siddharthan, an RSS nominee in the state, to take a lead in the future hence a low-profile leader was chosen,” said an officer-bearer of the Delhi BJP. Being a councillor, Gupta’s appointment may help the party for do ground work for the next municipal elections scheduled in 2022, a party functionary said.