In a significant development, the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, JP Nadda, announced the new list of the party's central office-bearers on Saturday, July 29. The party has appointed the former Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Tariq Mansoor as the party’s Vice President. Currently serving as a BJP MLC, the appointment of Tariq Mansoor, a Pasmanda Muslim from Uttar Pradesh, is aimed at wooing the Pasmanda Muslim community as part of the BJP’s strategic approach towards the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Tariq Mansoor assumed the position of Vice-Chancellor at AMU on May 17, 2017, with a tenure initially scheduled to last for five years until 2022. However, due to the exceptional circumstances brought about by the COVID_19 pandemic, his tenure was extended for an additional year. He decided to step down as the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University after being nominated, along with five other individuals, to become a member of the UP legislative council. Notably, he is the first sitting Vice-Chancellor of AMU to be appointed as a nominated member of the legislative council.
Throughout his tenure as the Vice-Chancellor at AMU, Tariq Mansoor encountered criticism and faced numerous protests from the university's students. The reason behind the discontentment was that he was accused of endorsing Hindu nationalist politics and took measures to suppress critical discussions on the campus.
Additionally, the BJP has also made significant changes in its lineup of general secretaries by dropping CT Ravi, a prominent leader from Karnataka, and Dilip Saikia, an MP representing Assam in the Lok Sabha. In their place, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who previously served as the president of Telangana BJP but lost the position to Union Minister G Kishan Reddy just before the Assembly polls in the state, has been appointed as a general secretary. CT Ravi is likely to be appointed the Karnataka BJP chief.
Furthermore, the party has appointed several new secretaries, including Anil Antony, the son of veteran Congress leader AK Antony, Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Singh Nagar, and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa. Anil stepped down from Congress, on January 25, 2023, after a tweet against the BBC Documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, titled India: The Modi Question. Shortly after, he joined the BJP in April. These changes reflect the BJP's efforts to recalibrate and strengthen its leadership ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.