Vijayawada: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday announced the appointment of former ABVP leader V. Muraleedharan of Kerala as AP party affairs in-charge and former RSS pracharak Sunil V. Deodhar as state co-incharge.
Mr Deodhar is credited with laying the ground for the BJP’s victory in the northeast, especially in Tripura. Mr Muraleedharan is a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra.
The post of state affairs incharge post fell vacant almost a year ago when Mr Siddharthnath Singh was appointed as a Cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh.
These two new in-charges will work in tandem with general secretary Ram Madhav, who has been tasked by the party central leadership to give special focus to AP which needs an aggressive stance to counter the onslaught by former ally TD.
The interesting appointment is that of Mr Deodhar, who was credited with the dislodging of the 25-year-old Left Front government of CPM leader Manik Sarkar in Tripura where BJP formed government for the first time. He was also the campaign manager for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election from Varanasi in 2014.
Mr Deodhar stayed put up in Tripura for almost 500 days ahead of the polls and shot to fame for his confession that he started eating pork and learnt the local languages by engaging tutors to build a base and have a connect with the masses in Tripura.
He was also known for inducting leaders from the Congress into the BJP fold, a move that strengthened the party base and ensured a historic win in Tripura.
Interestingly, it is learnt that Mr Deodhar and Mr Madhav, both from RSS, who were the architects of BJP’s emergence as a potential party in the northeast, share a strong rapport and bond and the AP party cadres are hopeful that the duo will weave the same magic in AP.
Mr Deodhar joined the BJP in 2005 from RSS and also runs an NGO “My Home India. We are very happy that party president Amit Shah has appointed new in-charges for Andhra Pradesh. We are hopeful and confident that both the new in-charges will help strengthen the party in the state. We are all upbeat over the new appointments.” BJP state unit office bearer and spokesperson, V Srinivas Raju, told Deccan Chronicle. Mr Amit Shah also appointed Mr Y. Satya Kumar from AP as the party national secretary.
