Who Is Harsh Malhotra? BJP Picks East Delhi MP To Lead Party’s Delhi Unit, Given Key State Leadership Roles

On Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Nitin Nabin rolled out a fresh batch of organisational appointments, shaking things up in four key states. The party tapped new presidents for its units in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Tripura, with national general secretary Arun Singh sending out separate notifications for each spot. Here’s the rundown: Harsh Malhotra, currently Union minister of state and MP, now heads the BJP’s Delhi unit. Archana Gupta takes over in Haryana. Kewal Singh Dhillon lands the top job in Punjab, and Abhishek Debroy steps up for Tripura.

Malhotra replaces Virendra Sachdeva in Delhi. In Punjab, Dhillon takes the spot from Sunil Jakhar. Gupta fills Mohan Lal Badoli’s shoes in Haryana, while Debroy succeeds Rajib Bhattacharjee in Tripura. The party clearly wants to hit reset and energise these states, and these new faces are the ones tasked with pulling it off. 

Who is Harsh Malhotra? 

Harsh Malhotra is a new MP and an experienced politician whose strength lies in organisation. Malhotra has been working at the grassroots level to make the BJP stronger in Delhi. At present, he serves as the Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs and Road Transport & Highways. He represents East Delhi in the Lok Sabha.

Harsh Malhotra contested the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, which he lost earlier, in place of the ace cricketer Gautam Gambhir who decided to concentrate on his cricket, in the 2024 general elections. He successfully defeated his rival, Kuldeep Kumar, candidate for INDIA bloc, by 93,663 votes.

What did Harsh Malhotra do before joining politics? 

Before joining politics as an MP, Malhotra was the head of the General Secretary of the BJP Delhi unit. Additionally, he held office as a municipal councillor and the Mayor of East Delhi Municipal Corporation. First elected as a councillor of the then East Delhi Municipal Corporation from Welcome Colony in 2012, the BJP leader was later made the chairman of its education committee before becoming its mayor in 2015-16.

The newly-appointed President of the Haryana BJP State Unit is Archana Gupta, who is originally from Panipat and was the State General Secretary of the BJP in Haryana before this appointment.

Abhishek Debroy was chosen as the BJP candidate for the highly contested Assembly constituency of Matarbari in the 2023 Legislative Assembly election of Tripura. Debroy emerged victorious in this race after defeating Congress candidate Pranajit Roy by more than 9,000 votes. 

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