Jaipur: The saffron party, known for springing surprises during elections, has done it once again by changing the Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party president just eight months before elections.

A letter regarding the appointment of Joshi was issued by the BJP state in-charge Arun Singh

Chittorgarh Member of Parliament CP Joshi has been made the new state unit president in place of Satish Poonia who has completed his three-year tenure. Party leaders had been announcing that Poonia would continue to hold the responsibility of the state president till the assembly elections to be held later this year.

The party officials announced the change in the morning. CP Joshi, who started his political career with the ABVP, is considered close to the Sangh. Satish Poonia also comes from an RSS background.

A letter regarding the appointment of Joshi was issued by the BJP state in-charge Arun Singh. Sources said that Poonia might get the rank of Leader of the Opposition which is lying vacant after Gulab Chand Kataria was appointed Assam Governor.

CP Joshi is Lok Sabha MP from Chittorgarh twice. He won the election from this seat first in 2014 and again in 2019. In the 2014 general elections, he defeated senior Congress leader Girija Vyas. Joshi has been the state president of the BJP`s youth wing, BJYM.

He will be the 15th president of the Rajasthan BJP and the 7th Brahmin president. Earlier, Harishankar Bhabhada, Bhanwarlal Sharma, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi, Mahesh Chandra Sharma, Raghuveer Singh Kaushal and Arun Chaturvedi have been the Brahmin presidents.

Satish Poonia took over as the BJP state president on September 15, 2019. Poonia remained on this post for three and a half years. The BJP has surprised many times by giving new faces a chance as state president. During the BJP rule Madan Lal Saini was made the state president in place of Ashok Parnami in an election year. After the death of Saini, Satish Poonia was given the responsibility of state president.

Poonia meanwhile changed his bio-data on social media. He has removed BJP state president from his profile intro on social media handles and introduced himself as MLA Amer.