BJP chief JP Nadda overhauls party’s team of central office-bearers, appoints ex-AMU VC Tariq Mansoor as vice president

BJP president J P Nadda rejigged the list of the party's central office-bearers on Saturday, bringing in a Pasmanda Muslim from Uttar Pradesh as one of its-vice presidents and accommodating its former Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar as a national general secretary.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped C T Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, and Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam, as its general secretaries, with sources indicating that they may be contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor, now a BJP MLC in Uttar Pradesh, has been made a vice-president, a decision seen to be part of the party's overtures to Pasmanda Muslims.

Most of the office-bearers have been retained as vice-presidents, general secretaries and secretaries in the new list. There are 13 vice-presidents, nine general secretaries, including B L Santhosh as the in-charge of the organisation, and 13 secretaries in the list.

Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, has been dropped as a party vice-president. Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony, has been brought in as a national secretary.