New Delhi: In a surprising move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday appointed Kapil Mishra as the Vice-President of its Delhi unit. Kapil Mishra, who switched his allegiance from Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to BJP in 2019, was without any post in the saffron party apparently because of his incendiary & controversial speeches. However, the allocation of bigger role for Mishra outlines party's strategy to align its campaign & poll focus around Hindutva ideology. Speaking on this appointment, the Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva told newsmen that his name was finalized in recent party rejig but couldn’t be announced due to some reason. Kapil Mishra has mostly been in limelight for his controversial & ‘fiery’ speech. During 2020 Delhi riots, he found himself in the storm of eye over his inflammatory speech against a particular community. He gave ‘ultimatum’ to Delhi Police to either clear the roads in Jaffrabad, blocked by anti-CAA protestors else there are other means to get them evicted. Kapil Mishra contested the Delhi Assembly election 2020 on BJP ticket from Model Town constituency but lost to the AAP rival. Before 2019 though, he was a senior minister in Kejriwal government. However, his differences & fracas with the AAP convenor led to him quitting the party and joining BJP, along with AAP’s women chief Richa Pandey. BJP’s Central team rejig The BJP, last month, announced a much-awaited reshuffle in the party organization, seen as party’s poll preparation for the impending Assembly Elections and Lok Sabha polls, slated next year. Effecting a rejig in the party’s list of central office-bearers, the BJP chief JP Nadda brought some new faces while dropped underperformers. CT Ravi, BJP leader from Karnataka, and Dilip Saikia, Lok Sabha MP from Assam were dropped as party general secretaries. Two new faces who made headlines with their induction in the party’s central unit included Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor and AK Antony’s son Anil Antony. Tariq Mansoor’s induction as Vice-President was seen as a step towards party’s overtures to Pasmanda Muslims.
