Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta resigns days after MCD defeat

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta resigned on Sunday, days after the party's defeat in the municipal corporation polls to the Aam Aadmi Party.

The BJP's Delhi unit vice president Virendra Sachdeva has been appointed acting president. The Aam Aadmi Party ended the BJP's 15-year-rule in the Municipal of Delhi (MCD) poll in results announced on Wednesday. The AAP won the elections with 134 seats, while the BJP bagged 104.

"The resignation of Adesh Gupta as Delhi BJP president has been accepted as per the direction of BJP national president Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda. Delhi unit vice president Virendra Sachdeva is being appointed working state unit chief till the next order," the BJP's national general secretary Arun Singh said in a communication.

The demand for an organisational overhaul in the Delhi BJP had begun immediately after the party's loss in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.

Amid the clamour for change, Gupta had in a meeting on the result day, asserted he was not going to give up to "conspiracies" against him.

Gupta's performance has been under the scanner since he took charge as president of the Delhi BJP in June 2020.

Under his leadership, the party failed to win bypolls to some MCD wards in 2021 as well as the Rajender Nagar Assembly bypoll.

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According to some Delhi BJP functionaries, Gupta's resignation does not mean much as he was anyway nearing the end of his term.

The organisational elections of the national BJP are scheduled to be complete in January 2023.

BJP leaders said the party constitution mandates organisational restructuring should be done in 50 per cent of state units ahead of changes in national organisation, they added.