Rajnath steps down, Gadkari takes over as BJP president

Mangalore Today

NEW DELHI, Dec. 19:  BJP’s Maharashtra unit chief Nitin Gadkari was on Saturday appointed the BJP president at a meeting of the Parliamentary Board of the party, marking a generational change in its hierarchy.

The 52-year-old leader succeeds Rajnath Singh to become the youngest president of the party and the first one from Maharashtra.

Gadkari was elected the party chief at the meeting attended by senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and others.

Earlier in the day, Gadkari said he did not view politics as a career but as an instrument of socio-economic reforms to bring about a change in the lives of the poor and the downtrodden.

"I don’t work as if I am making a political career. I work for the poor and downtrodden sections of society who don’t have food to eat, house to live in or clothes to wear. I strive to bring about a transformation in their lives," he said.

The party was effecting a generational change in its hierarchy. Advani on Friday stepped down as the Leader of Opposition paving way for Sushma Swaraj to don the mantle. He was chosen at a meeting of party MPs to the newly-created post of Chairman of the party’s Parliamentary Party.