New Delhi/Patna, Dec 15 (PTI) The BJP on Monday appointed Sanjay Saraogi as its Bihar unit president, a month after the saffron NDA-led party swept the polls in the eastern state.
Saraogi, 57, a former cabinet minister in the Bihar government, is the MLA from Dharbhanga constituency. He replaces Dilip Jaiswal, who was appointed to the post less than two years ago.
“Bharatiya Janata Party Jagat National President Prakash Nadda has appointed Sanjay Saraogi as Bharatiya Janata Party State President in Bihar with immediate effect,” BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said in the announcement.
Jaiswal is understood to have been replaced in line with the BJP’s stated “one person one post” policy. Last year, Nitish Kumar resigned from the cabinet after becoming BJP state president, replacing Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary.
Saraogi was inducted into the state cabinet in February this year and allotted the key portfolio of Revenue and Land Reform.
However, many raised eyebrows when he was not included in the new ministry formed last month, following the NDA’s landslide victory that saw the BJP emerge as the single largest party.
Often known to take a hard line on issues, Saragoi began his political career as an ABVP student activist and later became an active member of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) before being appointed as the president of the Darbhanga BJP city unit in 2001.
He made his electoral debut in 2005 assembly elections from Darbhanga and since then he has been winning the seat on the trot.
Like Jaiswal, Saragoi is also a Vaishya, a caste group that may not be politically dominant in Bihar but forms the BJP’s core support base.
