BJP's Delhi chief Adesh resigns

New Delhi: Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta on Sunday resigned from the post, days after the party's defeat in the municipal corporation polls to the Aam Aadmi Party. The BJP's Delhi unit vice-president Virendra Sachdeva has been appointed acting president. "The resignation of Adesh Gupta as Delhi BJP president has been accepted as per the direction of BJP national president Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda. Delhi unit vice- president Virendra Sachdeva is being appointed working state unit chief till the next order," BJP's national general secretary Arun Singh said in a communication.

Soon after taking over charge as acting president at Delhi BJP office, Sachdeva exhorted the party workers to start working for a victory of the party on Delhi's all the seven Lok Sabha seats in 2024 elections. "I am grateful to the party's central leadership for giving this responsibility to an ordinary worker like me. It's a responsibility that I will discharge taking together all the party leaders and workers," Sachdeva told reporters. Gupta in a tweet welcomed Sachdeva on his appointment as working president of Delhi BJP.

"Hearty congratulations to my friend and old colleague Virendra Sachdeva on being appointed as working president of Delhi BJP," Gupta tweeted. Sachdeva has discharged duties on various posts, including district presidents of Chandni Chowk and Mayur Vihar. The AAP ended the BJP's 15-year-rule in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) after winning the civic body elections with 134 seats (out of total 250 wards), while the BJP bagged 104. The demand for an organisational overhaul in the Delhi BJP had begun immediately after the party's loss in the MCD elections.

Amid the clamour for change, Gupta had in a meeting on the result day (Thursday) asserted he was not going to give up to "conspiracies" against him. Gupta's performance has been under the scanner since he took charge as president of the Delhi BJP in June 2020.

Under his leadership, the party failed to win bypolls to some MCD wards in 2021 as well as the Rajender Nagar Assembly bypoll. According to some Delhi BJP functionaries, Gupta's resignation does not mean much as he was anyway nearing the end of his term. The organisational elections of the BJP at the national level are scheduled to be complete in January 2023. BJP leaders said the party constitution mandates organisational restructuring should be done in 50 per cent of state units ahead of changes at national level.