BJP state unit president Babulal Marandi meets Adtiya Sahu at the party office in Ranchi on Friday, October 3, 2025. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
Rajya Sabha member Aditya Sahu is set to become the new president of the Jharkhand unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he was the only candidate to file his nomination for the post on Tuesday (January 13, 2026).
Mr. Sahu will replace Babulal Marandi, who is currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly. Union minister and state election officer Jual Oram was in Ranchi on the instructions of the central leadership to conduct the nomination process.
He was accompanied by Mr. Marandi, General Secretary of the organization Karmveer Singh and State Election Officer Dr. Pradeep Verma. Mr. Oram said that one proposal for the appointment of the State President and 21 candidates for National Council members had been delivered.
Mr. Sahu’s petitioners included Mr. Marandi, former Chief Minister Arjun Munda, Union Minister Annapurna Devi, State Vice Presidents Rakesh Prasad and others.
Mr Oram said the names of the state president and members of the National Council would be formally announced on Wednesday (January 14, 2026).
A non-tribal leader and member of the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Sahu hails from the Baniya caste, classified as an Other Backward Class. He previously served as the general secretary of the Jharkhand BJP and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand in 2022.
With a clean slate, Mr. Sahu was also a professor at Ram Tahal Choudhary College in Ranchi and was associated with the BJP for the past two decades. He is also considered a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Mr. Sahu is currently the working president of Jharkhand BJP.
Out of the 81 assembly seats, the INDIA-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bloc won 56 seats in the 2024 assembly elections, while the National Democratic Alliance won 24 seats, less than its tally in the 2019 assembly elections. Mr. Marandi-led BJP won 21 seats.
Published – 14 Jan 2026 02:00 IST
