BJP rejig: Anil Antony, AMU ex-vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor appointed vice presidents

Anil Antony, the son of senior Congress leader AK Antony, and former AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor have been appointed vice presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday. Former president of the Telangana state unit Bandi Sanjay has been appointed national general secretary along with lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh Radha Mohan Agarwal.

Overall, there are 13 vice-presidents, nine general secretaries, including BL Santhosh as the in-charge of organisation, and 13 secretaries on the list.

Several people other leaders such as CT Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam and Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh have been dropped as its general secretaries, with reports indicating that they may be contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Antony, the son of former defence minister, had joined the BJP in April this year in the presence of Union minister Piyush Goyal. Anil quit the Congress party in January following his critical remarks against the Congress party over BBC raids amid the row over BBC’s documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mansoor had resigned as Aligarh Muslim University or AMU vice-chancellor earlier this year after he was nominated as a member of the UP Legislative Council. Mansoor was amongst the six names forwarded by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh to the governor for being nominated as members of legislative council of the state.

The BJP’s latest decision to give a new role to Mansoor is seen to be part of the party’s overtures to Pasmanda Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.

BL Santhosh will remain the national general secretary of the BJP, while Shiv Prakash continues to be the joint general secretary.

Most of the office-bearers have been retained as vice-presidents, general secretaries and secretaries in the new list.

Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, has been dropped as a party vice-president.