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The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday named Union minister G Kishan Reddy, Sunil Jakhar and Babulal Marandi its president in Telangana, Punjab and Jharkhand respectively, effecting key organisational changes in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and fuelling the speculation about a reshuffle in the Union cabinet.
In a statement, the party also announced former Union minister D Purandeswari as its new Andhra Pradesh president and brought in OBC leader Etela Rajender as its election management committee chairperson in Telangana where assembly polls are due later this year.
Sources said there is a possibility of incumbent Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar being inducted as a minister in the central government in a reshuffle in the coming days, with Reddy likely to quit to take up his new assignment.
The development highlights the BJP's emphasis on setting its house in order in Telangana where many relatively new but powerful entrants to the party were against the leadership of Kumar, a combative ideologue liked by the party's central leaders but who is seen to have failed in taking along others, especially former Congress and ruling BRS functionaries who joined in large numbers in recent years.
With the Congress seeking to rally back to reclaim some of its lost ground in the southern state, the BJP is making a determined push to be the main challenger to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and is working overtime to augment its ranks by persuading local satraps of other parties to switch over.
By elevating Rajender, an influential regional leader, and removing Kumar, the party has sent a positive signal to those looking for greener pastures in the state's triangular politics.
Among other changes, Jakhar, a former Punjab Congress president and a much-liked leader, replaces Ashwani Sharma while Marandi comes in the place of Deepak Prakash.
The changes suggest that the BJP has put its faith in the tribal leader Marandi, a former chief minister, to take on the rival alliance headed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren, also a tribal.
The rejig is significant in the primacy given to leaders who have joined the BJP from other parties. Jakhar and Rajender left the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi respectively to join the BJP. Purandeswari was in the Congress and a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government.
With the BJP not being traditionally strong in Telangana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, its projection of these relative outsiders is unlikely to draw much opposition from its cadres and can help its expansion exercise, sources said.
The development will further fuel the speculation about a Cabinet rejig, with the upcoming assembly polls in states like Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh likely to be a factor besides the BJP's bid to give allies more representation.