Tribal leader, former MP Vishnu Deo Sai new C'garh BJP chief

The BJP's Chhattisgarh unit presidentship once against went to a prominent tribal face as former Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai replaced Vikram Usendi who was on the post since March last year. Sai (56), whose name was announced by BJP national president JP Nadda, is becoming the state unit chief for the third time, a party functionary said here.

He was state chief from 2006 to 2010 and was renominated in January, 2014 before leaving the post in August that year after being inducted into the Narendra Modi government as Union minister of state for steel. Sai, who hails from Jashpur, had won the Raigarh Lok Sabha seat from 1999 to 2014 but was then denied a ticket in the 2019 general elections.

BJP leaders said a consensus was reached to continue with a tribal face for the post of state unit chief as the leader of opposition in the state Assembly, Dharamlal Kaushik, is an OBC. Moreover, the ruling Congress also has a tribal leader in the state, they added.

Under Usendi, the party did well in the 2019 LS polls thanks to the Modi wave, winning nine out of 11 seats, but then suffered reverses in the Chhattisgarh urban bodies and panchayat polls. LoP Kaushik said the party will get a new identity in Chhattisgarh under Sai.

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