BJP state unit chiefs: Party appoints Ramachander Rao as Telangana head - JP Nadda to get successor soon?

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will appoint chiefs of more state units on Tuesday, a day after VP Ramalingam and K Beichhua were elected as the presidents of the party's Puducherry and Mizoram units respectively.

The appointment of BJP's state chiefs will pave the way for the election of its new national president, a post which Union health minister JP Nadda has held since January 2020. Nadda is currently on an extension.

The BJP's constitution requires the election of its presidents in at least 19 out of its 37 organisational states before the process to elect the national president begins. The ruling party currently has 16 state unit chiefs, and will cross that threshold on Tuesday.

The saffron party will get new bosses in Maharashtra (Ravindra Chavan), Telangana (Ramachander Rao) and Andhra Pradesh (PVN Madhav), while in Uttarakhand, the incumbent Mahendra Bhatt will begin a fresh term.

Only Chavan, Rai and Madhav have filed nominations for their respective posts, making their election a mere formality.

Some big states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh may also follow in the next few days.

In March, prime minister Narendra Modi visited the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's ideological parent. This triggered speculations that the visit was to discuss names for the BJP's next president; Nadda's term was first extended till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and a successor is yet to be found.

The RSS had stayed away from campaigning for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. This was a key factor in the party losing its individual Lok Sabha majority for the first time since 2014.

Nadda himself had make a remark that the BJP is "no longer dependent on the RSS."