Turning the long-swirling speculation into reality, Union Minister for Tourism & Culture G Kishan Reddy was today appointed as the party's Telangana unit president.
BJP national president J P Nadda issued the orders appointing Reddy as the State party chief, and the national general secretary of the party Arun Singh notified the appointment in a statement.
Singh said that the appointment of Reddy would come into force immediately.
Kishan Reddy has worked as a party State unit president in the past, too, when Telangana and AP were together.
BJP leaders say that the party high command had decided to remove the incumbent State unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar keeping in mind the rapidly changing politics in Telangana.
Bandi hinted that he would be replaced at a meeting of the party workers held in Hanumakonda recently. He said that he would perhaps not attend the public meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to be held in the town on July 8 as State party president.
In another key appointment, the BJP high command took steps to placate its angry leader Etala Rajender by making him the party's election management committee chairman ahead of the State Assembly elections. It also appointed former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy as a national party executive member.
In another key move, the party high command also appointed former union minister Daggubati Purandeswari as the State unit president of Andhra Pradesh.
Purandeswari was born on April 22, 1959. She entered politics with the Congress and became the Bapatla MP in 2004, and then the Vizag MP in 2009. She left the Congress opposing its decision to divide the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, and joined the BJP in 2014.