The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appointed six-time MLA and former Bihar minister, Sanjay Saraogi as the party chief of the state. This comes a month after the BJP-led NDA swept the state with massive victory of 202 out of 243 assembly seats. The 57-year-old leader was the member of Bihar cabinet in the previous government of Nitish Kumar. He now succeeds Dilip Jaiswal, who was appointed to the post less than two years ago.
“Bharatiya Janata Party national president Jagat Prakash Nadda has appointed Sanjay Saraogi as the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar with immediate effect,” BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said in a notification.
6-time Darbhanga MLA to lead party in Bihar
The non-inclusion of Saraogi in the newly formed Bihar cabinet had raised eyebrow. Now with the announcement, it is clear why the saffron party made the decision to give him the opportunity to head party in the state. This goes hand-in-hand with the BJP’s ‘one person one post’ policy, as Dilip Jaiswal has been inducted into the cabinet.
Often known to adopt a hard-line stance on issues, Saragoi began his political career as student activist of the ABVP and, later, became an active member of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He was later appointed the Darbhanga city unit president of the BJP in 2001.
He made his electoral debut in the 2005 assembly polls from Darbhanga, and has been winning the seat continuously since then. Like Jaiswal, Saragoi is also a Vaishya, a caste group, which may not be politically dominant in Bihar, but forms the core support base of the BJP.
BJP’s new announcements
This is the third big announcement made by the saffron party as far as its top leadership elections are concerned. On Sunday, the party made two significant announcements — Pankaj Chaudhary as the UP BJP chief and Nitin Nabin, Bihar Minister, as BJP’s national working president.
Meanwhile, reacting to the appointment, Saraogi said, “The party is like my mother, and I will definitely work with honesty, loyalty, and patience to strengthen the party.”
He was born on August 28, 1969, in Darbhanga, Bihar, Sanjay Saraogi has a strong academic background, with postgraduate degrees in Commerce (MCom) and Business Administration (MBA).