The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced a fresh round of organisational appointments, naming new state unit presidents for Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Tripura.
As part of the reshuffle, Union minister of state and MP Harsh Malhotra was appointed president of the party’s Delhi unit, while Archana Gupta was chosen to lead the BJP in Haryana.
In Tripura, the party named Abhishek Debroy as its new state chief, whereas Kewal Singh Dillon was appointed to head the Punjab unit ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
The appointments are being seen as the beginning of a wider organisational overhaul under BJP leadership, with preparations underway for the selection of new office-bearers both at the state and national levels.
All the appointments were made by BJP national president Nitin Nabin, and the announcements were made in separate notifications issued by the BJP national general secretary Arun Singh.
“All these appointments come into immediate effect," Singh said.
The organisational changes come at a time when the BJP is actively strengthening its state-level leadership structure ahead of key upcoming electoral battles, with the party seeking to streamline coordination between its central leadership and regional units.
Harsh Malhotra, a first-time Member of Parliament, is widely regarded within the BJP for his strong organisational skills and extensive grassroots experience in Delhi politics. He currently serves as Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs and for Road Transport & Highways, and represents the East Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha.
In the 2024 general elections, Malhotra was fielded from East Delhi in place of former cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who stepped back to focus on cricket commitments. He went on to win the seat, defeating INDIA bloc candidate Kuldeep Kumar by a margin of 93,663 votes.
Prior to entering Parliament, Malhotra held key organisational roles in the BJP’s Delhi unit, including serving as general secretary. His political journey began at the municipal level, where he was elected councillor from Welcome Colony in 2012 in the then East Delhi Municipal Corporation. He later chaired the civic body’s education committee and went on to serve as Mayor of East Delhi in 2015–16.
A former MLA from Barnala, Kewal Singh Dhillon has been a long-time figure in Punjab politics and is considered close to former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. He began his political career with the Congress before switching to the BJP in 2022.
Dhillon represented the Barnala Assembly constituency as a Congress MLA from 2007 to 2017. He later lost the seat in 2017 to AAP candidate Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, and went on to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Sangrur, where he was defeated by Bhagwant Mann. After joining the BJP, he also contested the 2022 Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll and the 2024 Barnala Assembly bypoll, but was unsuccessful in both.
Archana Gupta, originally from Panipat, was serving as the BJP’s Haryana State General Secretary before her elevation as the party’s new state unit president.
Abhishek Debroy contested the 2023 Tripura Legislative Assembly elections as the BJP candidate from the high-profile Matarbari constituency, where he secured victory by defeating Congress nominee Pranajit Roy with a margin of more than 9,000 votes.
Source: News18