Vishnu Dutt Sharma is Madhya Pradesh BJP chief; Dal Bahadur Chauhan to head Sikkim unit

New Delhi, February 15

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In a major overhaul, Bhartiya Janata Party national president J.P. Nadda on Saturday appointed three state party chiefs, paving the way for more organisational changes in the state units.

Dal Bahadur Chauhan has been appointed as BJP state president of Sikkim, while K Surendran has been appointed as Kerala BJP president.

However, the most surprising change came in Madhya Pradesh where Vishnu Dutt Sharma (49) has been appointed as president of the state unit in place of Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh, believed to be a trusted lieutenant of Union Home Minister and former BJP chief Amit Shah.

Speculations were rife in the state BJP that Rakesh Singh might get another term. He had last month organised a grand Pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act rally in his constituency, which was attended by Amit Shah.

However, the BJP leadership picked Sharma for the post, a move that has come as a surprise to many.

Sharma, who is popularly known as V D, is a staunch follower of the RSS. He is credited for strengthening the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS, in Madhya Pradesh in 1990s.

Sharma, who was the national general secretary of the ABVP, had joined the BJP in 2013.

With Sharma’s appointment, the BJP leadership has given yet another key post to a Brahmin leader in Madhya Pradesh after Gopal Bhargava, who is the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.

These appointments came after a poor show by the BJP in recently concluded Delhi Assembly polls, where the party could not get into the double digit.  — Agencies