Who is Sanjay Saraogi, new president of BJP’s Bihar unit?

“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.

Saraogi replaces Dilip Jaiswal, who was appointed to the post less than two years ago as Bihar BJP president.

Who is Sanjay Saraogi?

An MLA from Bihar’s Darbhanga constituency, Saraogi, 57, is a former cabinet minister in the Bihar government.

Jaiswal is likely to have been replaced in keeping with the BJP’s stated policy of ‘one person one post’. Last year, he had resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet upon becoming the state BJP president, replacing deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary.

Saraogi was inducted into the state cabinet in February this year, and allocated the crucial Revenue and Land Reform portfolio.

Saraogi started his political career with the ABVP as a student activist and later joined the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) where he was an active member. He was 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 on the trot since then.

He is the convenor of the Bihar State BJP Cow Protection Cell and a member of the State Executive Committee and he is often known to adopt a hard-line stance on issues.

Sanjay Saraogi, a prominent Vaishya face of the party, has been a MLA since February 2005 and is considered to have a strong hold on the Darbhanga urban seat. He was a minister in the previous NDA government and held crucial land and revenue portfolio. His appointment as state president is considered important for maintaining social balance and for electoral calculations

With inputs from Vijay Swaroop